The Artistic Journey of Rita Letendre

Rita Letendre was a Canadian painter, muralist, and printmaker associated with Les Automatistes and the Plasticiens. Born in Drummondville, Quebec, she was of Abenaki and Québécois descent. After being encouraged to enroll in the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, she eventually abandoned figuration by 1951 to become an abstract painter. Her work evolved through various stages, including a geometric style influenced by the Plasticiens and later works characterized by lines and strokes in black and white inspired by Zen and Confucius.

In the middle and late 1960s, she developed her flèches (arrows) style, focusing on hard-edge geometric shapes. During her time in California, she received a commission to paint the large mural Sunforce. Her technique later incorporated the use of an airbrush for long lines and rays. In the 1980s, she experimented with pastels, creating soft-edge landscape compositions. By 1995, she returned to working with heavier oils using brushes, palette knives, and her hands.

Recognition and Legacy

Letendre received numerous prestigious honors throughout her career, including:

• Officer of the Order of Canada
• Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts
• Recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
• Member of the Order of Ontario

Her works are held in major collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. One of her large oil paintings, Reflet d'Eden (1961), reached a record sale price at auction in 2022.