Yves Gaucher

Yves Gaucher

Yves Gaucher was a Canadian Abstract painter and printmaker who played an influential role in Quebec printmaking in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also a major contributor to the development of minimalism and hardedge painting.

Gaucher was born in Montreal in 1934 and attended Collège Brébeuf in Montreal in 1948. A year later, he studied at Sir George Williams College (today Concordia University). During his youth, he worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in the mailroom and, later in life, became a radio announcer with his own jazz program. He also played the trumpet and regularly performed gigs as a jazz musician.

After meeting Arthur Lismer, an artist of the Group of Seven, Gaucher decided to practice art more seriously. He studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montreal in 1954 but was expelled in 1956. From then on, he studied art on his own and took on freelance jobs. Years later, he returned to the École des beaux-arts and studied printmaking, creating his own technique of heavy embossing. His prints were technically innovative and represent his extensive career of experimentation.

His first exhibition was held at the Galerie d’Échange in 1957 after which he found much success in Montreal and throughout Canada. In 1962, he traveled to Europe to study art with a grant awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. He was the founding president of the Associations des Peintures-Gravures de Montréal. In 1964, Gaucher began to focus on painting. The New York Modernist artists Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko majorly influence his work, evidenced in his use of geometric objects and flat colours on large canvases, emphasizing mathematical relationships, patterns, and spatial relationships.

Gaucher’s work, along with those of Alex Colville and Sorel Etrog, were chosen to represent Canada at the 1966 Venice Biennale. In the 1980s, he taught at Concordia University. In 1981, he was appointment as a member of the Order of Canada and became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. His work has been shown at many institutions including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the MoMA in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Lawren Harris

Lawren Harris

Lawren Harris was a Canadian landscape painter recognized for his participation in the Group of Seven, the famous group of Canadian landscape painters of the 1920s and 1930s. His work redefined the history of Canadian art and contributed to its own distinct style with his innovative representations of the northern landscape.

He was born in Brantford, Ontario in 1885 to a family with wealth and status, which facilitated his pursuit of painting. He studied at the Central Technical School at St. Andrew’s College and, from the age of nineteen, studied in Berlin. After the formation of the Group of Seven, Harris financed the construction of the group’s studio building in Toronto, which also provided other artists space in which to work. Additionally, he financed trips for the Group of Seven to paint in the Algoma region, a district in North-western Ontario.

In the late 1910s, Harris painted colourful, descriptive motifs of urban life and the Algoma region. During the 1920s, his work evolved and became abstracted and simplified, particularly in his stark landscapes of the Canadian north. Over the decade, he took numerous sketching trips around Canada, looking for inspiration in places such as Jasper National Park, Banff National Park, Yoho National Park, and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, he traveled to the Arctic on a two-month trip with a supply ship, during which time he completed more than fifty sketches. In 1934, Harris lived in and painted in Hanover, New Hampshire, and in 1938, he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he organized the Transcendental Painting Group – an organization of like-minded artists who worked with a spiritual form of abstraction. After Harris achieved fame locally and internationally, he ceased signing and dating his work in the hopes that his audience would judge his pieces solely on their artistic splendour and not on their notoriety for being associated with his name. 

In 1969, Harris was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. Today, his work hangs in many prestigious public collections throughout the country including, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the Musée des Beaux Arts in Montreal. In 2016, Steve Martin, the famed American actor and comedian, curated a travelling exhibition of Harris’ work entitled, The Idea of North, which voyaged to various institutions throughout Canada and the United States.

Alexander Young Jackson

Alexander Young Jackson

Alexander Young Jackson was a Canadian landscape painter and printmaker. He was a founding member of the Group of Seven, the famed group of Canadian landscape painters who believed art could be developed through direct exposure to nature. Jackson, along with the other members of the group, made significant contributions to the historical development of twentieth century Canadian art. 

Jackson was born in 1882 in Montreal, Quebec. He received his first training in the arts while working at lithography firms in both Montreal and Chicago during his youth. From 1896-1899, he studied art at night school at the Conseil des arts et manufactures and at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1906-1907. He also studied Impressionism at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1907.

Upon his return to Canada, Jackson began painting Neo-Impressionist landscapes. His reputation in the art world was steadily growing, however, his career was interrupted by his enlistment in World War I. During the war, he was wounded and transferred to the Canadian War Records branch to work as an official war artist.

After his return from the war, Jackson became dissatisfied with the art scene in Montreal, prompting his move to Toronto where he shared a studio with Canadian painter Tom Thomson. The two, along with other members of the Group of Seven, took many trips to Canada’s wilderness to paint. During this time, Jackson created his famous winter scenes, specifically his paintings of the Arctic. His works were considered daring since, at the time, the wilderness was assumed to be too rugged and wild to be captured on canvas.

Jackson’s paintings of the Canadian wilderness helped shape the perception of Canadian art. His landscapes were, and continue to be, shown throughout Canada and are considered an important part of the country’s art identity and history. He received three honourary doctorates from McMaster University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of British Columbia. In 1967, Jackson was awarded the title of a Companion of the Order of Canada and received the medal for lifetime achievement from the Royal Canadian Academy. Jackson spent his last years as an artist-in-residence at the McMichael Gallery (now the McMichael Canadian Art Collection) in Ontario, where he is buried. His work is included in many prestigious private and public collections across the country.

Sarah Anne Johnson

Sarah Anne Johnson

Sarah Anne Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist who currently lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba where she was born in 1976. She uses photography as a primary medium to fabricate imagery that not only showcases a moment in time, but evokes the feelings she has towards the various subjects she depicts. She is celebrated for her ability to incorporate unique materials to her photographs, including paints, re-touching inks and glitter, as well as her various destructive methods such as burning, scratching and gouging.

She completed a BFA at the University of Manitoba in 2002 and an MFA from the Yale University School of Art in 2004. Her graduating exhibition, “Tree Planting”, consisted of 64 colour photographs that depict her experiences tree planting in a replenishing project in Northern Manitoba. Notably, The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum purchased the exhibition for their permanent collection.

Upon her Yale graduation, she was awarded with the Schickle-Collingwood Prize, which helped fund her following artistic projects, all of which engage with the relationship between photography and memory. House on Fire is one of Johnson’s most notable ongoing projects, which centers on the artist’s memory of her grandmother who underwent gruesome experimental treatments for depression.

Johnson has since received many awards and grants, including the inaugural Grange Prize and a Canada Council Major Grant in 2008. She has participated in various residencies and has taught at the Yale School of Art, Emily Carr University and the University of Manitoba. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, most notably at the Met Breuer in New York a total of three times.

Jean Paul Lemieux

Jean Paul Lemieux

Jean-Paul Lemieux is one of the most well-known and illustrious Quebec painters of the twentieth century. He is remembered for his depictions of desolate, infinite landscapes and cities of the Quebec region in a renewed figurative style.

Lemieux was born in Quebec City in 1904. He studied under Edwin Holgate at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. There, he met Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Charles Faucher, and Louis Muhlstock. Like many of his comrades at this time, Lemieux joined in on the prevailing trend during the 1930s and 1940s in Quebec, that of the renewal of figurative art. In 1929, when the great depression hit, Lemieux made the move to Europe to study advertising and art in Paris where he met fellow French-Canadian artist, Clarence Gagnon.

Lemieux has received numerous awards and accolades for his contribution to Quebecois art. The artist’s work was one of a select few chosen to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1960. In 1968, he became a Companion of the Order of Canada and was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. He received the Molson Prize for the Canada Council of the Arts in 1974. In addition to painting, Lemieux illustrated several books including La Petite Poule d’eau by Gabrielle Roy in 1971 and Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon in 1981. Major retrospectives of his work have been held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, and the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec in Quebec City.

John Little

John Little

John Little is a Canadian artist celebrated for his unique paintings of urban scenes from his hometown of Montreal. He studied at the Musée des beaux-arts in Montreal under Arthur Lismer and Goodridge Roberts. Later on, Little studied at the Art Students League in New York. Upon his return to Montreal in 1951, he joined his father’s architecture firm and worked as a draftsman.

In 1953, Little began working as full-time artist, though his interest in architecture did carry through into his art practice. He primarily painted Montreal’s historic buildings and neighborhoods – which have since drastically changed – with the intention of preserving their integrity and history. He is especially known and celebrated for his skill in capturing winter light and cold atmospheres. 

Little’s work is part of collections at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswick, and the Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal. Little became an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1961 and a full member of the Academy in 1973.

Jean McEwen

Jean McEwen

Jean McEwen is considered to be one of Canada’s most influential Abstract painters, more specifically, as a ‘lyrical abstractionist’. He was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1923. He started painting while studying pharmacology at the University of Montreal. He published poetry while at school, but his artistic style changed when he was introduced to a film about Paul Gauguin in 1946, after which he taught himself to paint in a Figurative style – all the while completing his program. His first solo exhibition at the Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal took place in 1951. In the same year, he traveled to Paris where he met a fellow Quebecois painter, Jean Paul Riopelle. He spent two years in Europe where he painted and exhibited alongside Riopelle and American artist, Sam Francis.

After returning to Montreal, he worked for a pharmaceutical company but continued to paint and participate in various solo and group exhibitions in Quebec, Ontario, and New York. In 1972, a retrospective of his work was held at the Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal entitled, McEwen 1953-1973. A second retrospective was held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal in 1987 entitled, Jean McEwen: Colour in Depth.

McEwen received many awards during his career including the Concours Artistique for the Province of Quebec in 1961, as well as an honourable mention during the Sondage 68 show at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in 1968. In 1977, he received the Victor Lynch-Staunton Scholarship from the Canada Council of the Arts and was also awarded the prestigious Paul-Émile Borduas Award by the Province of Quebec in 1998. His work is held in prestigious public collections, galleries, and institutions across the country.

David Milne

David Milne

David Milne was a Canadian painter, printmaker, and writer. His entire body of work predominantly focuses on Canadian landscapes, while his later pieces feature more whimsical subject matter. Milne is also credited, along with American painter Marsden Hartley, with bringing European Modernism to North America.

Milne was born in the small village of Burgoyne, Ontario, in 1882. At the age of twenty-one, he moved to New York City where he studied at the Arts Student League and exhibited his paintings for three years. During World War I, he was assigned the position of war artist. He created works capturing the battlefields in France and Belgium.

After the war, he briefly lived in New York before returning to Ontario in 1929 to focus on his painting. He worked predominately with oils but dabbled in watercolour and dry point printmaking. He created his own artistic style with inspiration from the European and American Modernists. He endowed simple subjects such as trees, flowers, and houses with majestic stature and dynamism. During his lifetime, the Group of Seven largely overshadowed his work. Today, however, he is considered one of Canada’s most important artists. Clement Greenberg described him as one of the greatest North American artists of his generation.

His works, along with those of Emily Carr, Goodridge Roberts, and Alfred Pellan, represented Canada at the 1952 Venice Biennale. The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa held a retrospective of his work in 1955 and a second was held at the Hart House, Toronto in 1962. An exhibition of his paintings was shown at the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (2005).

Guido Molinari

Guido Molinari

Guido Molinari was a Canadian artist celebrated for his vertical striped, hard-edged paintings of highly saturated colour that stimulated the eye’s instabilities of perception. From the 1950s onward, Molinari was a central figure in the Quebec and Canadian art scene, as well an important educator and writer.

Molinari was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1933. He began painting at the age of thirteen and after briefly studying design he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal and the School of Design at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. During his youth, the works of American artists, Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock, inspired him.

Molinari’s paintings represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1968, where he won the David Bright Prize. He was awarded many other notable accolades during his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967. He was appointed as an officer of the Order of Canada in 1971 and as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. During his lifetime, Molinari was also an avid art collector. He had an extensive collection featuring the works of Jasper Johns, John Cage, Henri Matisse, and Piet Mondrian.

Molinari’s influence on the Canadian art scene penetrated the sphere of education as well. He worked at Sir George Williams University in Montreal (today Concordia University) for twenty-seven years and was part of a small group of artists who founded the school’s Faculty of Fine Arts. After his death, he was awarded a doctorate posthumously from Concordia University for his significant contributions to the university. 

Today, the Fondation Guido Molinari works to promote his work as well as the work of young emerging artists. His paintings can be found in the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal in Quebec, the Fondation Guido Molinari in Montreal, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the MoMA in New York.

Kazuo Nakamura

Kazuo Nakamura

Kazuo Nakamura was a Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor who was a member of the Painters Eleven, the Toronto-based group of Abstract artists active during the 1950s. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1926. At the age of fifteen, Nakamura was subject to the Japanese-Canadian internment camps during World War II, a place that became a subject he frequently depicted in his early paintings and watercolours. After the war, in 1948, his family settled in Toronto where he attended the Central Technical School.

In 1953, Nakamura’s work was part of The Abstracts at Home show at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa. At this exhibition, he was introduced to the members of Painters Eleven and was invited to join the group by fellow artist, William Ronald. Nakamura’s work was distinguishable from the rest of the Painters Eleven as his works tended to be simpler in structure and employed a more monochromatic colour palette. Moreover, unlike the other members, Nakamura followed a highly analytical approach to painting, rather than a gestural one.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the artist distanced himself from the group and his work evolved from landscapes to more abstract compositions. Employing a mathematical and scientific approach, Nakamura painted grid paintings based on the Pascal triangle. He investigated the link between form and dimension through his art practice, aiming to discover a fundamental universal pattern in art and nature.

Nakamura’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout Canada and internationally. In 1955, he was part of the first Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Painting at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. His work was included in numerous exhibitions in New York, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and Yugoslavia throughout the latter half of the century. In 2004, a retrospective of his work titled, Kazuo Nakamura: A Human Measure, was held at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. In 2000, two years shy of his death, Nakamura was named an honorary fellow of the Ontario College of Art and Design and was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.