The Bleu, blanc, rouge series marks one of the most defining and celebrated periods in the career of Serge Lemoyne. Initiated in 1969 and pursued for a decade, this sustained body of work was governed by a strict chromatic discipline: Lemoyne resolved to paint exclusively in blue, white and red. Within this self-imposed limitation, he produced some of the most iconic paintings of his career, works that resonate deeply within the cultural and artistic history of Quebec.

The project was publicly announced during a performance at Gallery 20/20 in London, Ontario, where Lemoyne transformed the gallery into a hockey rink. There, he declared that all paintings produced over the next 10 years would adhere to the tricolour palette. The works exhibited that evening were to be crated and buried, only to be unearthed at the end of the decade, an act that underscored both the conceptual rigour of the series and Lemoyne’s penchant for provocation.

The palette unmistakably recalls the colours of the Montreal Canadiens, an emblem woven into Quebec’s collective identity. For Lemoyne, hockey was not merely a sport but a cultural touchstone capable of bridging audiences. By appropriating its chromatic language, he dissolved the divide between elite artistic discourse and popular experience, positioning painting within the emotional fabric of everyday life. This synthesis of intellectual inquiry and cultural immediacy accounts for the enduring appeal and collectability of the Bleu, blanc, rouge works.

In 1975, Serge Lemoyne continued the series, now drawing directly on photographs of players from the Montreal Canadiens. This sub-series, titled Série A, marked a shift toward a more explicit engagement with contemporary visual sources. That same year, he produced Le Joueur (The Player, collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts).

Over the course of the decade, Lemoyne increasingly developed a strategy of fragmentation, isolating and reworking details from earlier compositions into new paintings. The series unfolds as a continuous internal dialogue, in which each canvas operates both autonomously and as part of a larger, evolving whole. From a small section of Le Joueur, he derived Blow-Up; from a fragment of that work, in turn, he created the present Sans titre, producing a striking “triple-zoom” effect that intensifies both focus and abstraction.

The present Sans titre is a striking example from this pivotal series. Broad diagonal divisions traverse the canvas, creating a dynamic interplay between saturated expanses of red and assertive passages of blue and white. The composition suggests the fragment of a larger emblem or banner, yet remains firmly within the language of abstraction. The surface is animated by controlled drips and splashes, gestures that reveal the physicality of acrylic paint and recall the energy of action painting while remaining disciplined by the tricolour constraint.

Notably, this work was among the paintings displayed at Lemoyne’s residence in Acton Vale during the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations of June 24, 1979, when the annual parade concluded at his home and canvases from the series were hung from the second-floor balcony. This gesture reflects the artist’s conviction that painting belonged not only to the gallery but also to the public sphere.

Balancing cultural symbolism with formal strength, Sans titre exemplifies the confidence and clarity of Lemoyne’s mature practice. Within a disciplined formal and conceptual vocabulary, he achieved a body of work that remains among the most recognizable and significant contributions to post-war Quebec art.

We thank François Gauthier, specialist and archivist of the work of Serge Lemoyne, for his contribution to the research for this lot.

Please note: this work is unframed.

For the biography on Luc Plamondon in PDF format (in French and English), please click here.