b.1928, Drummondville, Québec
First Nations Affiliation:  Abenaki

A Canadian of mixed ancestry, which includes Abenaki on her mother's side, distinguished  painter and printmaker Rita Letendre began her practice in the path of Québec’s Automatiste movement, earning a place as one of Canada’s foremost modernist painters.  In the mid-sixties, Letendre moved on to a hard-edge technique, although her work up until the present is perhaps best characterized as that of an abstract or lyrical expressionist.  Over the course of her illustrious career she has completed  numerous public commissions for murals, (such as the Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto, Ontario), and a massive stained-glass work spanning the dome of  Glencairn Station in Toronto.

R E C E N T    E X H I B I T I O N S

S E L E C T E D  C O L L E C T I O N S

Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec
Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, Québec
Royal Bank of  Canada, Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Transit Commission, Toronto, Ontario
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Musée des beaux-arts, Montréal, Québec
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Dominion Bank, Toronto, Ontario
San Diego Art Gallery, San Diego, California
Long Beach Museum of Fine Arts, Long Beach, California

S E L E C T E D   B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Belisle, Josée. La collection Lavalin du Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal: le partage d'une visions. Preface by Arthur S. Labatt; Marcel Brisebois. Montréal: Editions de l'homme; Musée d'art contemporain, 1994.

Burrett, Deborah. Lasting Impressions: The Canadian Printmakers Showcase 1969-1974. Preface by Michael Bell. Ottawa: Carleton University Art Gallery, 1996.

"Femme de lumière." The (Montréal) Gazette, 15 March 1997, p. I-6. [Review: Galerie Simon Blais, Montréal, Québec]

Grande, John K. Review of Stealing the Show: Seven Women Artists in Canadian Public Art by Gunda Lambton. Canadian Forum 74, no. 844 (November 1995): 44-46.

Hakim, Mona. Le festival de peinture à Mascouche: l'abstraction à Montréal, 1950-70. Prefaces by Simon Blais; Claudette Salois; Richard Marcotte. Mascouche, Québec: Festival de Peinture à Mascouche, 1994.

Lambton, Gunda. Stealing the Show: Seven Women Artists in Canadian Public Art. Montréal, Québec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995.

Merola, Mario and Robert Wolfe, ed. Ecrits et temoinages de 24 peintres. Montréal, Québec: Fini/Infini, 1994.

Paikowsky, Sandra. Rita Letendre: The Montreal Years, 1953-1963 / Rita Letendre: les années Montréalaises, 1953-1963. Montréal, Québec: Concordia Art Gallery, 1989.

Roberge, Gaston. Femme de lumiére / Rita Letendre. Laval, Québec: 400 coups, 1997.

Stelmackowich, Cindy. Review of Stealing the Show: Seven Women Artists in Canadian Public Art by Gunda Lambton. Matriart: A Canadian Feminist Art Journal 6, no. 4 (1997): 34-37.