Well-known artist to be honoured in St Pierre-Jolys

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This article was published 20/10/2023 (433 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Franco-Manitoban artist whose body of work has spanned the decades and the globe will be honoured in St Pierre-Jolys this weekend.

Real Berard will see his work and his life put on permanent exhibit at the St Pierre-Jolys Museum.

“For the past 60 years, he’s a really big part of the contemporary Franco-Manitoban visual culture. If you had to name the most important visual artist in the Manitoba Franco-community in the past 60 years you would name Real Berard definitely…,” said exhibit curator Sol Desharnais. “He’s multifaceted he’s had his hands in many, many things and definitely deserves to be celebrated and featured.”

Desharnais said the exhibit is not a typical profile on an artist as it details more than just his work. There will be information panels detailing his life erected alongside photos and Berard’s art. His work ranges from linocuts and wood block prints to silk screening, to paintings, to sculpture.

“Of course his work is so extensive we don’t have work room for everything,” said Desharnais.

Berard was born in St Pierre-Jolys in 1935. He studied art at Manitoba Technical Institute, the University of Manitoba, and the School of Fine Arts in Montreal. In 1961 and 1963, he studied murals and frescos under the tutelage of Jose Guttierez at the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico.

He returned to Manitoba and got a job as an illustrator with CBC Times. He also worked as an illustrator for Manitoba department of natural resources from 1962 until 1990. Since 1982, under the name of Cayouche, Berard drew caricatures for Franco-Manitoban newspaper La Liberte. He chose the pen name to distance his art work from any political views and to protect his family. In 1990, he drew an animation to a Daniel Lavoie song which was submitted to the Cannes Film Festival in France and the Uppsala in Sweden. His film won the golden prize for animation at the 26th annual Chicago International Film Festival in 1991.

Over the course of his career, Berard also created many canoeing maps of Manitoba waterways for Manitoba Tourism. The maps began after Berard was sent to check for forest fires during a dry summer while working for Manitoba’s department of natural resources.

“We did the whole (canoe) trip and we never saw any fires, but when I came back in the winter I decided to do a map of our trip. Then on this map, I added all kinds of great things going up to Berens River and then there was a demand from the tourist branch wanting information for canoeing in the province from (tourists from the) U.S.A. They decided to print these maps and send them a copy of the maps through the canoeing country. And then it became sort of popular after a while they decide that I do more canoe maps for tourism. It’s sort of a promotion for canoeing in the province,” said Berard.

Berard also did a lot of snow sculptures and was one of the people responsible for bringing the art form to Manitoba. He also did the bronze bust of Louis Riel, which sits in front of the Saint Boniface Museum, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Riel’s death. Berard was given the Order of Canada in 2019.

“Sometimes, I ask my self the question (of why I’m being honoured) because I have friends around that are doing the same type of work and I was wondering how come they pick up on me? I figure they’re picking on the oldest one in the gang,” said a humble Berard about the museum exhibit.

He shared that he has been interested in art more than anything else since he was a child. He said he wasn’t a great student because all his time would be spent making art. He said artists are like old prospectors always searching for something.

“You’re searching for the world beauty,” he said.

Berard’s body of work is so vast and varied that he admits he doesn’t know why he couldn’t focus on one medium.

“I cannot really tell you how I describe my work…I wish I could impose myself a sort of discipline. The only way I could describe (my work) is Jack of all trades and master of none. I would like to concentrate on one medium, like sculpture, but everything is so interesting. So, I practice for a while in sculpture then printing, then all these different things, but never concentrate on one medium,” he said.

At 88, Berard is still going strong with his art as he’s working on a new map.

“Currently, (I’m) working on Churchill River. It’s a beautiful river and full of historical names and events that happened. You see, many of the names have been changed to English names so I put the real olden names back, the native names…You see the Churchill River, I have nothing against Mr. Churchill, but in the old days he never came to Canada and the natives used to call it the Great Waters so I just put back the native name.”

Those who wish to honour Berard and meet him, the museum will hold the opening of the exhibit on Oct. 22 at 4 p.m.

“Real is extremely, extremely humble and I think he has a hard time accepting this,” said Desharnais. “But at the same time he kind of asked for it because he’s such a creative man and such a big heart and so generous with his work and his art and it’s just coming back to him.

“This is important for the community for a couple of reasons. One, to honour him and to thank him for the 60 plus years of adding to our culture, to our contemporary culture. Not our pea soup and tourtiere culture, but today culture. We see it more to honour him and a thank you for people to remember his work and recognize him for all the work he has done.”