Claude Tousignant

Claude Tousignant

Claude Tousignant is a Canadian artist whose work is considered to have been integral to the development of Geometric Abstraction. In the 1950s, he was associated with the Modern art movement, les Plasticiens, a group who celebrated an orderly style of painting devoid of spontaneity.

Tousignant was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1932. Encouraged by his family to pursue a career in art, he attended the School of Art and Design at the Musée des Beaux-Arts from 1948-1951. He also spent time abroad in Paris studying at the Académie Ranson, but ultimately returned to Montreal in 1952.

Tousignant is best known for his circle paintings composed of large, target-like rings of various colours that explore the effects of optical illusions and colour studies. His circular motifs create vibrating, rhythmic forms with sharp clean edges that aim to challenge the senses. His intention was to create purely abstract works that ensured minimal interference between the painting and the viewer’s experience of colour.

His work has been shown in exhibitions internationally and is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Musée d’art contemporain and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec in Quebec City, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and many more. Tousignant continues to explore optics and sensory perception in his painting practice.

Harold Town

Harold Town

Harold Town was an Abstract painter who was a member of the Painters Eleven, the Toronto-based group of Abstract artists active during the 1950, and whose work contributed significantly to the development of Modernism in the Canadian art scene. He is also remembered as a talented printmaker and illustrator whose early works appeared in Mayfair and Maclean’s magazines.

Town was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1924 where he studied at the Western Technical-Commercial School and the Ontario College of Art. As a student, the works of Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning as well as East Asian ceramics and antiques from Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt were of great inspiration for him. Throughout his career, Town was also influenced by different global cultures and many historical references. He also experimented with a variety of contemporary and historical painting methods. He was somewhat of an unpredictable painter whose body of work evolved from abstraction to more conceptually grounded art later in his career.

During his lifetime, he received many honours and accolades for his artistic achievements. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1968. Additionally, he was chosen to represent Canada, along with artists Jack Shadbolt and Louis Archambault, at the Venice Biennale in 1956 and, again, in 1964 with artist Elza Mayhew. Town also represented Canada in the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1957 and 1961. Today, his work can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among many other institutions across the globe.

Manolo Valdés

Manolo Valdés

Manolo Valdés is a contemporary Spanish artist who is internationally recognized as an established painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born in Valencia Spain and enrolled in the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in 1957 where he studied for several years. There, he met Rafael Solbes and Juan Antonia Toledo, who, together in the 60s, founded Equipo Crónica, a Spanish manifestation of the Pop Art movement. The group lasted until 1981, during which time Valdés participated in more than 60 solo exhibitions. His artworks from this period are politically charged and are characterized by the use of unconventional materials and crudely-applied paint. 

After the group dissolved, Valdés continued to work independently and developed a style that became distinctly his own. His inspiration largely derives from the unique styles and techniques belonging to the Old Masters. He frequently employs elements of old motifs and traditional compositions of Art History in his body of work. The female figure is also frequently featured as a subject in his oeuvre, rendered in an unrefined and pared-down artistic style.  

Valdés’ work is included in many public collections internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Pairs, the Kunstmuseum in Basil, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among many others. He has received various awards, including the National Award for Fine Arts in Spain and the Medal of the Order of Andrés Bello in Venezuela.

The artist currently lives and works in both New York and Madrid.

Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1931. He attended University in his hometown to study psychology but was forced to put his education on hold after being drafted into the U.S. Army. During his time in the army, Wesselmann began drawing and decided to pursue a career as a cartoonist. Upon his return home, he fulfilled this desire and was successful in designing comic strips for men’s magazines and humour periodicals. His cartoons were often quite sexual in nature, which would later influence his fetishistic artwork. 

In 1956, Wesselmann was admitted to Cooper Union, one of the most prestigious art schools in the United States where, under the influence of Willem de Kooning, he developed an interest in landscape painting and nudes. He abandoned his job and pursued his art practice full-time. His early work as a cartoonist and his interest in his Pop Art predecessors influenced his artistic sensibility characterized by sensual colours and a slick aesthetic. With its fetishistic isolation of erogenous zones (hair, lips, nipples, teeth), Wesselmann’s imagery is deemed the most blatantly erotic of the Pop artists.

Wesselmann is considered one of the major artists of the New York Pop Art movement. His work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide and he is represented in many of the world’s most prestigious collections including the Tate in London, England, the MoMa in New York, NY, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in California, among others.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol is one of the world’s most prolific artists of his era. During his lifetime, he redefined art reproduction and pioneered the Pop Art movement. Today, he is widely considered an icon and is remembered for his art practice and lifestyle, both of which involved the celebration and proliferation of consumerist culture.

Warhol was born in 1928 into a working-class neighbourhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During his childhood, he suffered from Sydenham chorea, a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movements. When bedridden, he would read comics and Hollywood magazines, kindling his adoration of pop culture and icons. During these years, Warhol drew pictures inspired by his readings. His father recognized his talent and saved money for his son to attend Carnegie Mellon University where Warhol studied art.

After graduation, Warhol moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist. His first published work was an illustration for a story in a 1949 issue of Glamour magazine. Throughout the 1950s, he also worked as an illustrator for Tiffany & Co., Columbia Records, and Vogue.

In post-war, consumerist America, Warhol took note of the benefits of assembly lines devised for manufacturing purposes and employed this method of production in his studio. The Factory, suitably named for his art-making process, was Warhol’s famously silver painted and aluminum foil-covered studio. His studio became a hub for the New York art scene, where artists and celebrities would meet for parties and collaborations.

The early 1960s marked Warhol’s transition from hand-painted work to silkscreens. He created portraits of many famous people including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, and many more. Later in his career, he was commissioned to create album cover designs and portraits of hundreds of socialites, musicians, and film stars. In 1962, he made his famous series Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Although most famously known for his contributions to the Pop Art movement, throughout his career Warhol experimented with other various mediums including film, music, production, television, fashion, and theater. The largest work of his career was the Time Capsules (1974), which consisted of filled and sealed cardboard boxes filled with his belongings including letters, photographs, records, clothing, food, medicine, toys, artwork, and other random items. Warhol was known for his habit of collecting and documenting as he kept everything and captured his daily life using his Polaroid camera.

Warhol also had a taste for publishing. In 1969, Warhol co-founded the film, fashion, and pop culture magazine Interview. He published his first book, Andy Warhol’s Index in 1967 and, in 1975, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again). His 1989 book, The Andy Warhol Diaries, was published posthumously and chronicles his life from 1976 to 1987.

Andy Warhol’s work has been featured in countless exhibitions, books, and documentary films. The Andy Warhol Museum, located in his hometown of Pittsburgh, holds a permanent collection of his art and archives.