Canadian-born surrealist artist dies aged 90 Alain Glass, resided in Mexico since 1963, where he developed a large part of his career, which earned him several awards, including the Medal of Fine Arts 2017.

The news was confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Culture and National Institute of Fine Arts and Letters (INBAL), organizations that recognize his “significant surreal work that contributes to contemporary and world art”. This is why the two institutions have announced the holding in 2024 of a “major retrospective exhibition”, which will take place in the National Museum of Art (MUNAL), as they had previously agreed with the artist.

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From Canada to France and from there to Mexico

A glass was born in Montreal, June 30, 1932, surrounded by the wild environment of Mt. saint brunowho in one way or another greatly influenced his artistic style, which had established itself from an early age.

In 1949, the artist entered the Montreal School of Fine Arts, where he was a pupil of Alfred Pellan, one of the initiators of modern art in this country. Subsequently, in 1953, he received a scholarship from the French government and enrolled in the Paris School of Fine Arts, School of the Museum of Man and the Sorbonne.

Impregnated with bohemian Parisian life, Glass befriended several artists, decisive for his artistic training, including André Breton, Benjamin Peret, Victor Brauner, Roberto Matta, Alberto Giacometti and abstract expressionist painters, including Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis and Jean-Paul Riopelle.

About her relationship with Mexico, Glass said she was born after seeing a sugar skull in the house of Breton’s daughter, Aube Elléouët. The little candy amazed him so much that in 1962 he made his first trip to our country, where he returned a year later to settle permanently.

His work

Considered a key element of surrealist movementAmong his work, his “object boxes” stand out, which, based on everyday elements, such as buttons, gloves, locks of hair, dolls, shells or pieces of fabric, among others -many of them found by chance on their rounds of flea markets in different countries.

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His work, including sculpture, was considered compositions of great artistic beauty, in which figures such as Queen Elizabeth I and King Ludwig II of Bavaria appear, as well as the sea, the sky or the universe ; a reflection of his wonderful world.

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Among the museums where he exhibited his works in Mexico are the Palace of Fine Arts, Palace of Modern Art, Tamayo Contemporary Art and Palace of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca.

Several of his pieces are currently part of important international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France, the Museum of Modern Art from Mexico City, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada and the New York Metropolitan MuseumUnited States.