Robert Miquel (1932–2017) and Colette Dumeny, originally from Algeria, immigrated to Quebec in 1956 after completing their studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Upon his arrival, Miquel taught sculpture and modeling, and both attended the School of Art and Design in Montreal under the guidance of painter Arthur Lismer, a founding member of the Group of Seven. Miquel enjoyed notable success as a commercial illustrator and also worked as a costume designer for Radio-Canada. Eventually, they devoted themselves to art education, earning a master’s degree from Concordia University in 1978. Their dissertations reveal the foundations of their artistic practice and pedagogical approach.

Dumeny sculpts and paints “the Woman-Being.” The multifaceted image of women—daughter, wife, lover, and mother—is embodied in a symbolic and poetic body of work. For his part, Miquel develops a body of work on “the bird-man or the myth of transcendence.” For him, “the bird-man is the sum of all things that seem so divided to us and yet are one. It is the mystery of genesis, of life, and of creation…”

The works on display were created over several decades, the result of tireless effort undertaken alongside their teaching careers. They are accompanied by a selection of works by their daughter Françoise, who is also a retired art teacher at Lionel-Groulx Middle School. Françoise draws inspiration from the materials themselves to compose her paintings. She lets her intuition guide her, drawing on her deep understanding of the pictorial language. Whether figurative or abstract, it is the sensibility evoked by the medium that matters most to the artist.