Claude Tousignant
(1932–)
Claude Tousignant
1932–
Claude Tousignant (1932– ), born in Montréal, Québec, is a Canadian artist who is one of the important contributors to the development of Geometric Abstraction in Canada. Tousignant is known for his circular paintings that consist of large, target-like rings of bright colours that explore the effects of optical illusions and colour studies.
From 1948 to 1951, Tousignant attended the School of Art and Design at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, where he studied under Arthur Lismer, Marian Scott, and Gordon Webber. He then travelled to Paris and furthered his studies at the Académie Ranson. Tousignant returned to Montréal in the spring of 1952.
Tousignant is associate with Les Plasticiens, a Canadian non-figurative painting movement founded by four painters: Fernand Toupin, Jean-Paul Jérôme, Louis Belzile, and Rodolphe de Repentigny. The group believed art should be pure colour and form with no personal expression.
Tousignant has exhibited at major institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, and the National Gallery of Canada, amongst many others. Over the course of his career, Claude Tousignant has won the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (presented by the Canada Council for the Arts for outstanding achievement by mid-career artists). appointed the Officer of the Order of Canada in 1986, awarded the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize in 1989. In 2010, he also received the Governor General’s Award of Visual Arts and Media Canada.
