Morton Rosengarten, a storied figure from Montreal\u2019s cultural past, is being mourned by friends and family.<\/p>\n
Rosengarten, who died two weeks ago at 92 after a lengthy battle with pulmonary disease, was a force \u2014 albeit a most unassuming and modest one \u2014 on the city\u2019s burgeoning cultural scene in the latter half of the last century. A renowned sculptor, he deeply affected the lives of fellow iconoclasts and buddies like his lifelong best friend Leonard Cohen, Indigenous filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, poet Irving Layton and painter\/sculptor Armand Vaillancourt. He also left his mark on the scores of students he taught, among them Joni Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy uncle was just so principled and erudite, but with such a wry sense of humour. He was totally devoted to his art, and he taught me innumerable life lessons,\u201d says his nephew Shawn Rosengarten, a Montreal TV distributor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all lose people we love along the way, but this loss really hurts. My uncle Morton so inspired me both by his work and his life. He was my closest living relative, and I already miss him greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-1.png\")
Sculptor Morton Rosengarten on Nov. 1, 2023 on his 90th\u00a0birthday at an exhibition of his work in the Eastern Townships. Behind him is a poster featuring a sketch of Leonard Cohen that Rosengarten had doodled on a bar napkin decades earlier. (Shawn Rosengarten)<\/p>\n
Born in Montreal in 1933, Morton graduated from Sir George Williams University in 1956 and went on to study at London\u2019s famed St. Martin\u2019s School of Art under the tutelage of three of the most influential British sculptors of the 20th century: Anthony Caro, Eduardo Paolozzi and Elisabeth Frink.<\/p>\n
Following his studies in England, he returned to Montreal\u00a0and launched with Cohen the long-defunct downtown bohemian outpost the Four Penny Gallery on Stanley St., dedicated to contemporary art and poetry.<\/p>\n
Rosengarten continued to craft his sculptures in bronze, stone, wood and paper. He proved particularly resourceful in accessing industrial foundries, where he cast his own work in bronze and produced numerous series of innovative figurative sculptures and highly personalized portraits.<\/p>\n
Obomsawin met Rosengarten 70 years ago when she arrived in Montreal, and they remained friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorton along with Leonard were among the first people I met here, and he turned out to be such a wonderful, lifelong friend,\u201d says Obomsawin, 93, who is working on a documentary about the rights of Indigenous children. \u201cWe had an annual tradition of doing Christmas Eve dinners together at my place and even though his health was deteriorating, Morton showed up again for our last dinner in December. I used to get about 40 people to show up in the early years, but sadly, this year we were only 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will so miss him. He was such an incredible talent, but so low-key. I was very impressed by his artwork \u2013 all his bronzes and particularly the one did on my friend and his longtime companion Kittie Bruneau.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1962, Rosengarten left Montreal for Bonaventure Island in the Gasp\u00e9, where he built a home with artist Bruneau. He later relocated to Way\u2019s Mills in the Eastern Townships without Bruneau, who was to pass away in 2021.<\/p>\n
In Way\u2019s Mills, Rosengarten transformed a century-old creamery into an artist foundry and studio, where he worked for six decades.<\/p>\n
He exhibited his work in Canada and abroad, including at New York\u2019s prestigious Charles Egan Gallery and at Art Basel. He collaborated with Cohen as well as Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje on The Lines of the Poet, a 1981 \u201clivre d\u2019artiste\u201d that has been displayed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorton Rosengarten\u2019s early work was at the centre of an artistic avant-garde that shaped mid-20th-century art \u2014 a transformative period between figuration and abstraction,\u201d notes Paul Mar\u00e9chal, professor of art history at UQAM, Power Corporation of Canada curator and author.<\/p>\n
In addition to teaching generations of university and CEGEP students as well as artists at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, Rosengarten is credited for giving Joni Mitchell a transformative lesson in drawing at New York\u2019s Washington Square. Dissatisfied with her work, he suggested she draw him without looking at the paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Katherine Monk\u2019s book Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell, the singer\/songwriter\/artist says he \u201cgave me a very simple exercise which freed my drawing and gave it boldness and energy. He gave me my originality.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0513-brownstein.jpg\")
Morton Rosengarten in 2017 outside the home he shared for years with Leonard Cohen on St-Dominique St. \u201cWe loved it. We just wanted somewhere to stay put and concentrate on our other endeavours back then.\u201d Pierre Obendrauf \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n
Though based in Way\u2019s Mills until his death, Rosengarten always maintained his strong connection to Cohen, who had been spending much of his time on the fabled Greek isle of Hydra back in the 1960s and \u201970s.<\/p>\n