Pierre Ayot

Ayot also was a member of the GWC Screen Shop and made prints in Winnipeg.

Denis Langlois is recorded as having studied under Pierre Ayot. Work by Pierre Ayot is recorded in the collections of Tate, National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Collection d'oeuvres d'art de l'Université de Montréal and Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.

• Name — Pierre Ayot • Born — 26 June 1943 • Birthplace — Montreal, Quebec, Canada • Died — 2 May 1995 • Place of death — Berthierville, Quebec, Canada • Spouse — Madeleine Forcier • Known for — multidisciplinary artist

Ayot was born in Montreal and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Montreal (1959–1962) and with Albert Dumouchel. He also taught there (1964), and at the Université du Québec, Montreal (1969–1995). In 1966 he founded and directed Atelier Libre 848, a printmaking workshop (known as Atelier Graff from 1970 on). He also was one of the founding members of the group Média, gravures et multiples, which was next door to Graff and served as publisher and dealer for its prints. Graff fostered a group of artists interested in Pop art. He was guest artist at Centro Internazionale di Sperimentazione Artistiche Marie Louise Jeanneret, Boissano, Italy (1982–1983). In 1995 at the age of 52 he died in an auto accident near Berthierville, Quebec.

Ayot was one of the artists attracted to Pop art in Quebec, along with Serge Lemoyne, Edmund Alleyn and COZIC. Ayot's imagery at first drew upon comic strips and media culture, then celebrated everyday objects. He developed silkscreen and photographic collage techniques with elements from graphic design and advertising. He applied Pop art to graphic work, using plastic and photography as in his two and three-dimensional interpretations of a gum machine used real gumballs and a silk-screened machine as well as his versions of a toaster and tape-recorder. He also made sculpture, painting and photography, as well as audio and visual installations.

Ayot's work was included in Canada '67 shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Retrospectives of his works have been organized by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MACM), Pierre Ayot: Le médium n'est pas le message (1980) and by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Pierre Ayot: Hors cadre(s) = Pierre Ayot: Unlimited (2001). In 1992, Pierre Ayot et son Museum Circus was organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. In 2016, Pierre Ayot - Regard critique / Pierre Ayot - Critical Insight, along with several other exhibitions examined the whole of the artist’s career.

Atelier Graff is today a contemporary art centre with an active membership. In 2015, it joined with the Société d'habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM) to offer professional artists and crafts workers customized work premises.

Pierre Ayot is recorded as photographer, painter, artist and printmaker.