Jean Benoît

About

Jean Benoît was born in Quebec City in 1922 and became a prominent post-war Surrealist artist associated with the movement's most provocative expressions. He moved to Montreal to study fine art and eventually taught at l'École des beaux-arts de Montréal alongside Alfred Pellan. After encouraging his students to rebel against the institution's conservative approach to art, a riot ensued that led to student expulsions and Benoît's dismissal, an event that catalyzed the Prisme d'Yeux Manifeste and the rival Refus Global movement. From 1959 until André Breton's death in 1969, Benoît and Breton were close friends and artistic compatriots. During this period, he created some of his most memorable works, including primitive-like sculptures, sexually infused drawings and paintings, and costumes inspired by the Marquis de Sade. His artistic practice was characterized by imagery of phallic and vaginal forms, skulls, and serpents, reflecting his focus on the primal nature of human expression rather than social conventions.

Surrealism with emphasis on primal and sexually explicit imagery; primitive-like sculptural forms