Yves Gaucher
(1934–)
(–2000)
Yves Gaucher
1934–2000
Yves Gaucher (1934–2000) was a Canadian abstract painter and printmaker. Gaucher’s paintings refer to human emotions with a strong stylistic emphasis on line, colour, and texture. He experimented with colour band painting, a style consists of wide stripes of uniform colours, in 1970.
Gaucher developed an earnest interest in art only after a visit to Arthur Lismer, a founding member of the Group of Seven. He enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montréal in 1954 but was expelled. After his expulsion, he continued to make art and returned to the École to study printmaking. Gaucher created a new controversial printmaking technique called heavy embossing, which sought to challenge traditional printmaking methods. Gaucher’s first breakthrough in art was through his exhibition at the Galerie d'Échange in Montréal in 1957. By the 1960s he was the founding president of Associations des Peintures-Gravures de Montréal. In 1962, he received a grant from the Canada Council to travel to Paris, France, where he was exposed to the music of Anton Webern that later inspired him to paint more irregular patterns and colour contrasts.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gaucher's printmaking was technically innovative and experimental. Although by 1964, Gaucher began to focus on painting instead of printmaking, finding inspiration from New York Modernists such as Barnett Newman. Gaucher was nominated for the Order of Canada in 1980. His work has been featured in major institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.