Fernand Toupin (1930,

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

–2009 Terrebonne) was a Québécois abstract

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

best known as a first-generation member of the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

movement known as

Les Plasticiens The Plasticien movement was a Canadian non-figurative painting movement, which appeared around 1955 in Quebec. It was a more orderly style of painting in reaction to Les Automatistes In 1954, a young critic and painter newly returned from Paris, ...

. Like other members of the group, his shaped paintings drew upon the tradition of geometric abstraction, and he cited Mondrian as a forerunner. In 1959, Toupin began working with a more lyrical, though abstract, way of painting. The last decade of his career saw his return to geometric abstraction. Like

Jean-Paul Mousseau Jean-Paul Mousseau (January 1, 1927 – February 7, 1991) was a Quebec artist. He was a student of Paul-Émile Borduas, a member of the Automatist group and a founding member of the Association of Non-Figurative Artists of Montreal. Career Je ...

, Toupin created works which lay outside the standard boundaries of art such as his stage sets for ballets.

Solo exhibitions

Beginning with his first early-career retrospectives in 1967 and 1972 organized by the

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (, MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it ...

and the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, Toupin's work was the subject of several gallery and museum exhibitions, both in Canada and abroad. The Musée d'art de Joliette organized a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

in 1986 and the Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent in 2003, among others. 1959 Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal 1962 Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montréal 1965 Galerie Camille Hébert, Montréal 1967 Retrospective, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1970 Galerie Arnaud, Paris 1970 Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montréal 1972 Galerie Arnaud, Paris 1972 Retrospective, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris 1974 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal 1974 Suite d’Automne, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1976 Galerie Arnaud, Paris 1976 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal 1976 Olympic Stadium, Montréal 1977 Place des Arts, Montréal 1977 Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, Mont-Orford 1979 Galerie Frédéric Palardy, Saint-Lambert 1979 Claude Gadoury Art Moderne, Montréal 1980 Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montréal 1980 Dominion-Corinth Gallery, Ottawa 1981 Retrospective, Collège André-Grasset, Montréal 1982 Galerie Lacerte Guimont, Sillery 1983 Galerie Frédéric Palardy, Saint-Lambert 1984 Galerie Présence, Montréal 1985 La Galerie, Montréal 1986 Galerie Frédéric Palardy, Saint-Lambert 1986 Retrospective, Musée d'art de Joliette 1988 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal 1990 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal 1995 Riverin-Arlogos Art Contemporain, Eastman 2001 Galerie Bernard, Montréal 2003 Retrospective, Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-du-Loup 2004 Retrospective, Galerie Montcalm, Gatineau 2005 Galerie Bernard, Montréal 2005 Retrospective, Galerie Renée-Blain, Brossard 2006 Retrospective, Musée régional de la Côte Nord, Sept-Iles 2007 Retrospective, Acadia University Art Gallery, Wolfsville, Nova Scotia 2008 Retrospective, Colline Gallery, Edmundston, New Brunswick 2009 Galerie Bernard, Montréal 2009 Retrospective, Maison de la culture Villeray, Montréal 2010 Retrospective, miniature works, Galerie Bernard, Montréal 2011 Retrospective, Galerie Lamoureux Ritzenhoff, Montréal 2013 Galerie Bernard, Montréal 2015 Galerie Bernard, Montréal

Selected group exhibitions

Toupin showed in the exhibitions of the Plasticien group such as the 1955 show at L'Échourie, Montréal as well as in many exhibitions later, both in Canada and abroad. His work was included in the 1975 Canadian canvas show, a travelling exhibit of large paintings to nine Canadian museums and in the 1992 ''Les Plasticiens'' exhibition, National Gallery of Canada and in the 2013 ''Les Plasticiens and the 1950s–1960s'',

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is located in National Battlefields Park and is a complex of four buildings. Three of them were purpose-built for ...

. In 2022, he was included in ''Territoires insoupçonnés'', Galerie Bernard, Montréal. 1954 Petit salon d’été, Librairie-galerie Tranquille, Montréal 1955 Les Plasticiens, L'Échourie, Montréal 1956 Toupin and Belzile, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gallery XII 1956 Jeune sculpture, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montréal 1956 Les moins de trente ans, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montréal 1956 Duo Exhibition, Canada/United States, Parma Gallery, New York 1958 Salon de la jeune peinture, École des beaux-arts de Montréal (winner of first prize) 1958 Les lauréats du Salon de la jeune peinture 1958, Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal 1959 Art abstrait, École des beaux-arts de Montréal 1962 Two Worlds Festival, Spoleto, Italy 1966 Canadian Art, travelling exhibit across Canada from the Sayde and Samuel Bronfman collection 1970 Québec Pavillon, Osaka World Expo, Japan 1972 Fourth International Paintings Festival, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (winner of national prize for Canada) 1973 Galerie Raymonde Cazenave, Paris 1975 Canadian canvas, travelling exhibit of large paintings to nine Canadian museums 1976 Randall Galleries, New York 1977 Jauran et les premiers plasticiens, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1980 Art Expo, International Art Exposition, New York Coliseum, New York 1980 La collection permanente du Musée, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1980 Dix ans de propositions géométriques, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1980 Randall Galleries, New York 1984 Arte Universal A Través De Los Tiempos, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 1987 Accents de la collection Lavalin, Galerie Lavalin, Montréal 1989 Avant-garde des années ’50 et ’60, Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal 1991 Tokyo Central Museum, Japan 1992 La collection: tableau inaugural, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1992 Les Plasticiens, National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Winnipeg Art Gallery 2005 Les Plasticiens, Galerie Simon Blais, Montréal 2008 Cape Breton University Art Gallery, Sydney, Nova Scotia 2011 Quiet Mutinies : Art in Québec in the 1950s, The Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary, Alberta 2012 La question de l’abstraction, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal 2013 Les Plasticiens et les années 1950 et 1960, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec 2013 The Plasticiens and Beyond: Montreal 1955-1970, Varley Art Gallery, Markham, Ontario 2014 Mid-Century Modern, Museum London, London, Ontario 2014 Dialogues formels, Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec 2015 Dialogues de l’œil, Permanent Collection of the City of Gatineau 2016 Abstracta Delecta: The Quebec Painters, Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C. 2017 Montréal d’hier à aujourd’hui, Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal 2019 Couleurs Manifestes, Musée des Beaux-arts de Sherbrooke 2022 Territoires insoupçonnés, Galerie Bernard, Montréal

Selected miscellaneous exhibitions

*1970–72 Tapestries, ateliers Pierre Daquin, Paris *1971 ''Germinal'', mural for the

*1974 Set creation for "Au-delà du temps/Time out of mind",

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal (GBCM) is a ballet company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A creative and repertory company, it performs works that reflect the diverse trends of contemporary ballet. History Les Grands Ballets Canadien ...

*1975 ''Errances'', art book on poems by

Fernand Ouellette Fernand Ouellette is a Quebecois writer. He is a three-time winner of the Governor General's Awards, having won the Governor General's Award for French-language non-fiction at the 1970 Governor General's Awards for ''Les actes retrouvés'', the ...

including seven lithographs *1977 Set creation for "La Scouine", Les Grands Ballets Canadiens *1977 ''Hochelaga'', mural for the Wilfrid-Pelletier Concert Hall at Place des Arts in Montréal *1978 ''Prochain épisode'', art book on the novel by

Hubert Aquin Hubert Aquin (24 October 1929 – 15 March 1977) was a Quebec writer, filmmaker and intellectual. He is particularly known for his novel ''Next Episode (novel), Next Episode''. He is also an important figure in the history of the Quebec Soverei ...

including 14 lithographs and one etching *2005 Participates in the documentary of André Desrochers, "L’intuition intuitionnée" on the first movement of Plasticiens

Selected public collections

Toupin's work is in the public art collections of the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

, Ottawa; the

, Québec; the

; the

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is a public provincial museums of Canada, provincial art museum based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The art museum's primary building complex is located in downtown Halifax and takes up ...

, Halifax; and in many other public institutions, both in Canada and abroad. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke Musée d’art de Joliette Musée Laurier Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-du-Loup Place des arts, Montréal University of Montreal City of Montreal (Saint-Laurent district) City of Brossard City of Gatineau Selection Reader`s Digest Loto-Québec Banque Nationale du Canada University of Lethbridge, Alberta Simon Fraser University, Vancouver University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia Museum London, London, Ontario Statische Kunstgalerie, Bochum, Germany Centre national d'art contemporain, Paris

Memberships

Toupin was a founding member of The Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal (1956). He also was a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

(1977).

Awards

*1958 First prize, Salon de la jeune peinture, École des beaux-arts de Montréal *1972 Fourth international paintings Festival, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (winner of the national prize for Canada)

References

External links

Entry for Fernand Toupin
on the

Union List of Artist Names The Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) is a free online database of the Getty Research Institute using a controlled vocabulary, which by 2018 contained over 300,000 artists and over 720,000 names for them, as well as other information about artist ...

Biography
on the website of the Gallery 2000 *
Gallery of work
on the website of the Gallery 2000

Lamoureux Ritzenhoff Gallery

Artshift {{DEFAULTSORT:Toupin, Fernand 1930 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 21st-century Canadian painters Artists from Montreal Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian male artists Canadian abstract artists Canadian muralists