Ulysse Comtois, born in Granby in 1931, studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. He took part in two Automatiste exhibitions, La matière chante (1954) and Espace 55 (1955). He was awarded the Prix de la Province du Québec in 1964, and he and Guido Molinari represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1968. He was the recipient of the Prix Paul- Émile-Borduas in 1978 and the Prix Louis-Philippe-Hébert in 1991. The retrospective exhibition Ulysse Comtois 1952–1982 was presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1983. Comtois taught visual arts at both the Université du Québec à Montréal and Concordia University. He died in Montreal in 1999. Two years later, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec presented Dessins inédits (unpublished drawings).