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Jean McEwen
(1923 - 1999)

McEwen studied pharmacy at the University of Montreal, while maintaining an interest in poetry and painting. In 1951, less than a year after his graduation, he decided to pursue a career as an artist and soon found his interest was in non-representational expression and experiments. He was inspired by Montreal Automatiste members Jean Paul Riopelle and Paul-Émile Borduas, who believed in spontaneous creativity based on tapping into the unconscious. Jean McEwen wanted his abstract paintings to be an experience for the viewer. They are layered with translucent and opaque colour, and he is particularly known for his experiments in pouring and layering paint.

McEwen moved to Paris in 1951 where he was influenced by the work of Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jackson Pollock and Sam Francis. By 1952, he was painting in a style like Riopelle's, using a palette knife to create all-over surface effects, a method he later left behind when he began working with his fingers.

Beginning in 1957, McEwen worked on a succession of experimental series that focused on creating flat, dynamic space through exploring the different qualities of colour. These pieces do not make any reference to nature but consider the relationship of the painting's structure to its colour. They are made by means of a layered process with opaque and transparent pigment.

Sans Titre
1969 - 70
Oil on Canvas
14" x 11"
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