{"id":20655,"date":"2021-10-05T16:14:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=20655"},"modified":"2021-10-07T18:33:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T22:33:45","slug":"norman-laliberte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2021\/10\/05\/norman-laliberte\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye To Nahant Artist Norman Laliberte"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to do what has already been done,\u201d Norman Laliberte said in a 2017 interview with Squash House Media<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s the most important thing about art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberte, who died in his sleep at his Nahant home on Sept. 10 at age 95, created paintings, drawings and painted wood totems, but he was best known for his banners. Especially the 88 banners the Roman Catholic artist created for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 to \u201865 New York World\u2019s Fair. His designs interpreted \u201cBiblical events in an unconventional manner. Raw-edged, primitive forms cut from burlap. Wool or lace are appliqu\u00e9 on a cotton ground, about 4 by 15 feet, in brash, carnival-like colors,\u201d The New York Times said in 1964.<\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a>
Norman LaLibert\u00e9 moving a painting among the artworks store in the upper floor of his Nahant home, Sept. 4, 2015. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What set Laliberte\u2019s work apart was the inspiration he drew from folk art, his Catholic faith, and those vivid colors. \u201cI\u2019m from Montreal, I lived there until I was 20,\u201d Laliberte told The Salem News in 2013<\/a>. \u201cIn Montreal, every painter painted in gray, because Montreal is gray. After leaving, it was almost like a revolution, I started using color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laliberte cited the influences of Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso. He was part of the zeitgeist of artists and designers in the 1950s and \u201860s who drew on folk art and Victorian era design. He also found ideas in ancient Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Aztec art.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis unique form of abstract expressionism serves as a potent anti-depressant,\u201d his son Kristian Laliberte wrote in the catalogue for a 2012 exhibition at Harbour Gallery in Mississauga, Canada, \u201canimals, flowers and often sensual figures install viewers with uplifting feelings of joie de vivre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a>
Norman Laliberte’s 2019 exhibit “Inside the Mind of a Maker” at Montserrat College of Art, Beverly. (Photo: Montserrat College of Art)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Laliberte spent the first year of his life in Worcester, but grew up speaking French in Montreal. He returned to Montreal when he was drafted by the U.S. Army during World War II, but was still in the United States when the war ended (\u201cI didn\u2019t have to kill anybody, and nobody got to kill me,\u201d he told Wicked Local in 2013<\/a>) but served for a year and a half in postwar Germany.<\/p>\n

He would teach at Kansas City Art Institute, Boston College, Notre Dame and Rhode Island School of Design and publish dozens of how-to books\u2014about woodcuts and stencils and ink drawing and masks and, of course, banners.<\/p>\n

When Laliberte exhibited his religious drawings and paintings depicting the Archangel Michael casting devils into Hell, the Annunciation, and the Passion of Jesus at Boston\u2019s Botolph Group Center for Religious Art in 1956, The Boston Globe\u2019s Edgar Driscoll Jr. called it \u201ca stunning\u201d show \u201ccombining powerful personal expression with marked feeling and dedication to the timelessness of his themes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to Laliberte\u2019s 1959 Botolph exhibition of scenes of the Nativity and Adoration, Driscoll said Laliberte\u2019s \u201capproach more often than not is deliberately childlike. That he succeeds in bringing a child\u2019s fresh view to these works along with adult drawing and color know-how of a high order is no small tribute to his artistry. \u2026 Ingenious and refreshing is the word for this one.\u201d Laliberte continued to exhibit at Botolph gallery through the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a>
Norman Laliberte’s banners in the main concourse of the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 to \u201865 New York World\u2019s Fair. (from \u201cOfficial Guide Book: Vatican Pavilion, New York World\u2019s Far 1965-1965″)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Architect and designer Charles Eames was apparently the first choice for the Vatican Pavilion at the New York World\u2019s Fair in 1964 and \u201965. But Eames was booked. But having \u201cseen Mr. Laliberte\u2019s religious paintings, drawings and banners at the Osborne Gallery, [Eames] suggested that the artist be engaged as design consultant for the Vatican Pavilion,\u201d The New York Times reported in March 1965.<\/p>\n

The art was intended to wrap around the star of the Vatican Pavilion: Michelangelo\u2019s 1499 marble \u201cPieta.\u201d Laliberte recruited RISD students to help him assemble his 88 banner designs. And he called in Sister Corita Kent to add her own art to the hall.<\/p>\n

According the official guide book: \u201cSuspended from the pavilion ceiling and seen from both the chapel and the main floor are 44 striking banners portraying symbolically the great feasts and other features of the liturgical year. Designed and produced under the direction of Norman Laliberte, the colorful banners are an interesting departure from the conventional.\u201d<\/p>\n