Louis De Niverville
(1933–)
(–2019)
Louis De Niverville
1933–2019
Louis de Niverville (1933–2019) was a self-taught painter and collage artist, known for working in modernist and surrealist styles. Working commercially in Canada during the latter half of the twentieth century, de Niverville’s work was featured in advertisements and on book covers, as well as being shown in galleries. Many saw a turning point in de Niverville’s career when he was commissioned to complete a large-scale mural at Expo Theatre in Montreal in 1966-67. As a result of this work, he was commissioned to complete several large-scale murals in and around Toronto, Ontario.
De Niverville was born to Canadian parents in Andover, England, where he lived for only one year before his family moved back to Montreal. At age six, he was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis, which left him hospitalized for five years. During this time, he recalled spending hours at a time entertaining himself with daydreams and fantasies, which later became instrumental to his surrealist-like artistic practice.
From 1957 to 1963, de Niverville worked as a graphic designer for the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) in Toronto, Ontario. It was only after this stint at the CBC that he took up painting and painted collage as his principal media. He and many others attribute his commission of the mural at the Expo Theatre as the solidification of his recognizable modernist-surrealist style. Using diffuse colours, juxtaposed imagery, and dream-like settings, de Niverville’s well-known style invokes feelings of serenity, alongside uncanniness and occasional discomfort.
De Niverville was also commissioned and became well-known for several other public artworks, including two murals for Toronto International Airport in 1963, one in 1978 for the Toronto Transit Commission titled Morning Glory—located in the Spadina subway station—and one for the atrium of SickKids hospital in Toronto in 1993. From 1988 to 2005, de Niverville lived and worked in Vancouver, British Columbia, before returning to Ontario. He lived the last 14 years of his life in Oakville, where he passed away from lung cancer in 2019.
De Niverville’s work currently sits in numerous public collections including the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario; Art Gallery of Hamilton; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa; Hirshhorn Museum in Washington; McIntosh Art Gallery at Western University in London, Ontario; National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa; and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Musée d'art Contemporain in Montreal.
