Claude Roussel, is a Canadian sculptor, painter and educator. He is considered a pioneer of modern sculpture in Acadia.
Biography
Education
Born Claude Patrice Roussel in Edmundston, New Brunswick, he began carving in wood by age 10. He showed his work publicly at age 17. He studied sculpture with Paul Carmel Laporte, a visual arts pioneer in Madawaska. After a few years of work, he studied from 1950 to 1956 at École des beaux-arts de Montréal in Montreal, where he obtained a teaching degree and another in sculpture. In Edmundston, he became the first artist in the province to provide art education in French public schools. He later became assistant curator of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. In this period, he sculpted his first monumental work, The Two Beavers, presented to Lord Beaverbrook by the Government of New Brunswick on the occasion of his 80th birthday. In 1961, a special grant from the Canada Council for the Arts allowed Roussel to travel to Europe, where he took particular interest in architectural decoration in England, France and Italy.
A second grant in 1963 allowed him to become an artist-in-residence at the University of Moncton. He founded the Department of Visual Arts and the same year and the university art gallery in 1965. He organized two exhibitions of works by Acadian artists, Selection 65 and Selection 67. He led the department from 1963 to 1971 and from 1976 to 1979. He became a member of the Maritime Education Foundation and the Jack Chambers Memorial Foundation. He was chairman of Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen acquisition fund for the Art Gallery of the University of Moncton until 1991. He founded Canadian Artists Representation, of which he was president from 1971 to 1976.
Retirement
He taught at the university until his retirement in February 1992 and, since then, has been entirely dedicated to working in his studio in Cap-Pelé.
Style inspirations
Claude Roussel was inspired by the work of Paul Carmel Laporte, as were others of his students. For example, Back to Health is reminiscent of Laporte's sculpture in the first surgery in Saint-Basile, while Courage and Dedication inspired Roussel's model for the Escuminac Disaster Monument.
Notable works
Claude Roussel has had more than 60 solo exhibitions and 140 group exhibitions and he has created more than 60 monumental sculptures. His works are found in many countries of the world but especially in New Brunswick and Quebec.
