Guido Molinari
Guido Molinari (1933–2004) was a Montréal based abstract artist, creating paintings defined by modular lines and bright colours. Notably, Molinari initiated the Québec Plasticien school of non-figurative painting.
At age sixteen, Molinari enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in Montréal to develop his talents. At this time, he was highly influenced by the painter Piet Mondrian and Québec abstract artist Paul-Émile Borduas. He began studying at Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and then moved to New York, where he was influenced by Abstract Expressionist artists such as Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock.
He founded Gallerie L'Actuelle with Claude Tousignant, which had a specialization in abstract art and became a focal point for Les Plasticiens. He took part in The Responsive Eye, the major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1965. He then went on to represent Canada at the 34th Venice Biennale in 1968. Molinari had a significant retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in 1976, where he also published his writing. He has exhibited his work internationally at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, and the Guggenheim, New York.
In 1971, Molinari was appointed to the Order of Canada. He has been recognized with numerous awards such as the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts Award (1965), David E. Bright Foundation Award (1968), and the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize (1980). Additionally, Molinari taught for twenty-seven years at Sir George Williams University and Concordia University, the latter of which awarded him with a posthumous doctorate in 2004.