Early Life and Artistic Training Ulysse Comtois enters the scene in Granby, Canada, on March 2, 1931. The quietude of his birthplace gives way to the urban intensity of Montreal in 1948. He leaves Granby to enroll at the École des beaux-arts, seeking the formal structures of classical instruction. The institution provides a traditional framework, but the fit is imperfect. He finds himself at odds with the rigid academicism of the scho…