Armand Vaillancourt was born September 3, 1929 in Black Lake, Quebec. In 1954 this brilliant metal sculpture and abstract print maker was to put the art world on it's ear and make Montreal the hot-bed of Social Activist Art.

Vaillancourt was studying at the Ecole des beaux-arts in Montreal and attracted the public attention in 1954 with a two-year project that involved the sculpting of a tree scheduled to be cut down on Durocher Street. Carved in front of passersby, the work launched Vaillancourt's reputation as a social activist as much as an innovative artist and blazed the trail for his future experiments using chain saws and fire for his wooden sculptures.

A commissioned work, refused upon completion entitled Sculpture No. 1, took first prize at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Exhibition in 1961.

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