Untitled_16-21

About Untitled_16-21

This colourful, predominantly red abstract acrylic painting on paper is by Paul Fournier.

Paul Fournier is considered to be one of Canada’s most significant abstract expressionists. Early in his career, he received praise from the distinguished NY art critic, Donald Kuspit, who described his work as that of an ‘exotic modernist.’
In the sixties, Fournier was part of a group of celebrated Toronto painters…Milly Ristvedt and David Bolduc, among others, explored the techniques and forms of abstraction. This piece is a fine example of Fournier’s playful, expressive work.
Against a vivid red background, organic shapes appear to dance around the picture plane. Rendered in an exciting palette of blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, and pink, punctuated by pops of white and black, the energy is palpable.

“(Art) It just was always there…So often we talk about something that we choose…but we don’t talk about being chosen…Art chose me.” Paul Fournier

“No matter how potent the allusion, Fournier, as a highly intuitive artist with a profound belief in the expressive power of his materials.” Karen Wilkin, 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. He 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.