Honorary Members

Québec's illustration profession has flourished and its visual milieu has been enriched thanks to the creations, talent, daring and dedication of these outstanding illustrators. They are consummate professionals, completely devoted to a profession that has attained prominent status and success in Québec, Canada and even abroad. They are artists who chose to follow their inspirations and stay true to their techniques, rather than submit to fleeting trends.

These honorary members have been chosen because of their exceptional contributions to the illustration field. The honorary members were nominated by resolution of the Board of Directors of the Association des illustrateurs et illustratrices du Québec.

Frédéric Back (to visit his portfolio)

He began back in 1952 with Radio-Canada as an illustrator, art director and model maker for musical, scientific and youth programming, and joined its animated film division in 1968. He went on to create nine short films devoted to promoting intelligent symbiosis between humanity and nature, among them: Illusion?; Tout-rien; Crac!; The Man who Planted Trees; and The Mighty River. A many time prizewinner and recipient of two Oscars (Academy Award), his films are internationally acclaimed and used widely in education.

Antoine Dumas (to visit his portfolio)

Beginning as a designer in advertising, he helped found the Graphics Communications program of the École des arts visuels. By 1960, Dumas was giving periodic exhibitions in Québec, Montreal and Toronto; in 1975 he was invited as a guest artist in New York. Travelling exhibitions based on his solo shows were organized on two occasions: first across Québec in 1973, and then in Ontario in 1980. Dumas is mainly known as an artist and book illustrator and for his silkscreen prints, but he also designs murals and postage stamps for Canada Post. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Suzanne Duranceau (to visit his portfolio)

Recipient of numerous prizes for her editorial, advertising and children's book illustrations, Suzanne Duranceau is the creator of 16 stamps including, in 2004, a France-Canada co-production titled "1604 Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons". She also recently completed the design for a gold coin celebrating the 130th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada for the Royal Canadian Mint.

Beginning with the international success of her "Trilogie de la Terre" (Earth Trilogy) in 1990 for the 20th anniversary of Smithsonian Magazine, she has oriented her work increasingly toward ecological subjects.

For the last seven years she has taught Visual Language and Drawing (Langage Plastique et Dessin) at C.E.G.E.P. Ahuntsic and now teaches at the new UBISOFT Campus.

Member of the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communication (CAPIC) of which she was national president in 1991, and member of the New York Society of Illustrators for the past 15 years, Suzanne Duranceau is particularly proud to have overseen the growth of the Association des illustrateurs et illustratrices du Québec, which she founded with a group of illustrators in 1982.

Vittorio Fiorucci (to visit his portfolio)

Is a poster artist who exudes powerful style and colour, and who also works in sculpture comic strips. He has been known as a seminal figure in design and graphic arts in Québec since the 1960s, and has acquired international renown as can be testified by his listing in the Swiss Who's Who in Graphic Design publication. Among his most familiar characters is the Just For Laughs festival mascot.

Michèle Lemieux (to visit his portfolio)

Michèle Lemieux came to illustration toward the end of the 1970's. For five years, she worked in Germany, where she published her first titles, and then returned to Montreal, where in 1989 she began to teach at UQAM's School of Design.

Her illustrated books, which have been translated into twenty languages, have earned numerous international prizes, notably the Bologna Ragazzi Award in 1997, the primary international prize for children's literature.

Several of her works have been adapted to the stage and screen. From 2000 to 2002, Ms. Lemieux devoted herself to an animated film based on her book Stormy Night in association with the National Film Board of Canada. It won several prizes and, in 2004, the film was awarded a Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, North America, South America and Japan

Richard Parent (to visit his portfolio)

Richard Parent was born on July 2, 1958 in Montreal. He studied advertising graphics and several years later participated in the first steps of the Association of Illustrators of Quebec. Subsequently, he exiled himself to London for three years ( 1985 - 1988 ) where he collaborated on several publications and worked for several publishing houses. Following his return to Montreal, he worked closely with the McGill University Press, where he created more than forty cover pages. In 1990, B.A.T. magazine supported him by publishing an interview depicting him as one of the best 100 illustrators in the world.

A return to London within the framework of a joint exhibition with Anita Kunzt at Canada House allowed him to start a personal project consisting of a series of pencil portraits, as well as to work on his magazine Noir Express. The latter was intended to serve as a bridge between illustration and the new literature by offering artists a place to express themselves and to confront each other. Illness claimed him on August 5, 1993, before he could fulfil this dream. Through his work, it is possible to perceive the seriousness of his vision, his lucid manner of seeing man, and man's relationship with others, and to portray the absurd. His entire work is marked by his incredible ability to make the chimera emerge from each anecdote, the fantastic from ordinary things.

Pol Turgeon (to visit his portfolio)

He was tossed into the world like a raging bull into a china shop. Such was the cliché opening act of this artist, who was forced to make do with a remarkable schnoz, an excruciating timidity, a misfitting wardrobe, an overly sensitive heart and debilitating dyslexia. Thus bundled, Pol Turgeon made his first awkward steps in a seemingly hostile world. His reading and writing disability catalyzed an avid early devotion to drawing, which became for him the medium by which his china ego gained a much-needed affirmation. Though not noticeably gifted, Turgeon persisted. Creating images was the one thing that transported him beyond the cruelty of his environment. So enduring and pervasive was his enthrallment--in that it never failed to lift his spirits into a vault of bliss--that many years later his illustrations would be reproduced throughout the world. His work has been honoured with awards and has appeared in numerous prestigious illustration annuals. Today, besides obsessively drawing, he teaches illustration and live-art drawing at the University of Quebec at Montreal, exhibits his professional and personal work and gives talks and workshops internationally and is currently working on the set design for a multi-discipline performance piece. And despite all this, Pol Turgeon is convinced that he has only just begun...

J.W. Stewart (to visit his portfolio)

Since 1981, he has had regular solo shows and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Stewart's work is in private, corporate and public collections in Canada and the U.S.

He joined the AIIQ in 1984 and later served as a member of the executive committee for five terms. Stewart coordinated production of the 1989 and 1990 editions of Illustration Québec, defining the format that the repertoire follows to this day.

His work runs the gamut of professional illustration, appearing in everything from The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, Scientific American, Forbes, Fortune, The Utne Reader, and many other publications, to annual reports and advertisements. He has won numerous awards and citations, and his work has been shown in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual and The New York City Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition.

He maintains a professional practice in illustration while reserving his skills in design and graphic arts for the production of book covers for literary publishers.