Canadian artist Pierre Henry was born in Bonaventure, Gaspésie, Quebec in 1932. Henry studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Montreal and would go on to spend the majority of his life in the Montreal region, balancing his work as an artist and vice president of communications at Pratt & Whitney. He became the first president of the consulting committee of the Fine Arts faculty at Concordia University and sat on numerous boards of cultural organizations. In 1977, Henry transformed a historic house into the Marsil Museum of Saint-Lambert. He also created “Les Femmeuses”, an exposition that presented from 1986 to 2006, reserved for female painters, in which the proceeds went to funding women’s shelters against violence.
In 1992, Henry became the first president of the Centre Les Impatients (foundation for therapeutic and brute art of Quebec), which aims to help people with mental health problems through artistic expression. Henry described the Center as “a bridge that connects the two shores of society…” In 1995, the artist was elected to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Canada. He has exhibited in numerous galleries across North America.
The artist is distinguished with having created the artistic movement of “anecdotism”. Henry’s work is characterized by a serious lack of seriousness; comics, prehistoric art and other artistic sources imbue the work of Pierre Henry with a rigorous and poetic vision.
