Redemption

About Redemption

This contemporary abstract colourful painting by Paul Fournier has a red background.

Paul Fournier received early praise from the distinguished NY art critic, Donald Kuspit, who described his colourful Fauvist-like work as that of an ‘exotic modernist.’ Fauvism was a post-impressionist movement in France (think Matisse) characterized by an imaginative use of colour. In the sixties, Fournier was part of a group of gifted Toronto painters…Milly Ristvedt, K.M. Graham and David Bolduc, among them who explored the techniques and forms of abstraction. Time spent in the Caribbean provided inspiration for an entire series of paintings that allowed Fournier the freedom to play with saturated colour and spontaneous abstract form. In this acrylic piece, a myriad of bright colours—expressive strokes of hot pink, yellow, purple, turquoise, blue, orange, white and black pop against the bold, bright red backdrop.

”My painting is just a world that I jump into.” Paul Fournier

“Fournier continues to explore and extend the limits of his own imagery, his own handwriting, his own ability to use colour and paint. His new pictures are personal and expressive: lyrical, generous and decorative in the best Matissean sense of the word.” Karen Wilkin, NY Curator, Art Critic

Paul Fournier was born during the Great Depression in Simcoe, Ontario. He first studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1959 and went on to study printmaking at McMaster University in Hamilton in 1967. Fournier also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in 1996, where he’d also been the artist in residence. Fournier became a member of a group of artists in Toronto who were mentored by Jack Bush and together explored modernist expressionism. During a career that spans six decades, Fournier has had solo exhibitions in several Canadian cities and in the U.S. His work is held in private collections in North and South America and Europe.
Public collections include the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington.