Sylvia Daoust

[2] Daoust was also one of the original members of the organization Le Retable d’Art Sacre, a group that helped transform the state of Roman Catholic churches in French Canada.

The figurines caught the eye of the Sisters of St. Anne, who encouraged her to enroll at the École des Beaux-Arts de Québec.

[9] While she did extensive work in the classroom, 1948 marked the beginning her career in modernist art alongside fellow artist and peer, Paul-Émile Borduas.

[10] During the early 1940s movement of sacred art,[10] she became acquainted with Dom Bello, the architect of Saint Benedict Abbey in Saint-Benoit-du-Lac, Québec.

[6] Her transition into sacred art was marked by the production of approximately thirty wooden statues to which she added colour accents and experimented with different materials such as aluminum and leather.

In 1942, she won the first prize for Our Lady of Montreal, in the competition held on the occasion of the Third Centenary of the Founding Nationale de St. Jean Baptiste.

Edouard Mont Petit (1967) by Sylvia Daoust
Frère Marie-Victorin (1951) by Sylvia Daoust