Jean McEwen

1923–1999

Jean McEwen (1923–1999), born in Montréal, was a Canadian painter known for his evocative abstractions that focused on light, gesture, and subtle colour relationships.

McEwen was a self-taught painter. He enrolled in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal from 1944 to 1947, during which time he maintained an interest in poetry and painting. McEwen was inspired after seeing the film The Moon and Sixpence (1942)—a biopic on Paul Gauguin. Later that decade, the abstract painter Paul Émile Borduas became a friend and mentor of him.

Jean McEwen wanted his abstract paintings to be an experience for the viewer. He experiments in pouring and layering paint to achieve translucent and opaque colour for each work. His first group exhibition was at Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, where McEwen received positive receptions. He quit his job as a pharmacist and left Montréal for Paris in the 1970s. In Paris, McEwen visited museums and was introduced and befriended by Jean-Paul Riopelle and Sam Francis, who were influential to him.

From 1982 to 1994, he returned to Montréal and became a professor at Concordia University. In 1998, he received the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas from the Government of Québec. In 1987, McEwen received a retrospective exhibition at Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and a second commemorative exhibition in 2019.

McEwen’s works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, among others.

Artworks

Jean McEwen
(1923)
(1999)