Paul Fournier: “An Exotic Modernist”

Paul Fournier (b. 1939, Simcoe, ON) first emerged in Toronto during the 1960s within a movement of third-generation non-figurative painters.

His paintings and works on paper can be found in many major Canadian collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. His work was selected by critic Andrew Hudson for 14 Canadians: A Critic’s Choice at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and by Boston Museum of Fine Arts curator Kenworth Moffett for inclusion in The New Generation: A Curator’s Choice at the Andre Emmerich Gallery in New York.

At eighty-three, Paul Fournier’s enduring practice is influenced by the natural world. The range of subjects invites the viewer into scenes as diverse as underwater ecosystems, cosmic events, or the play of light and weather. His use of bold colours and painterly strokes recreates a fantastical universe.

In 1959, Fournier moved to Toronto as a student studying at Ontario College of Art. He soon became known for his use of bright fauvist colours for which he was dubbed an “exotic modernist” by New York art critic Donald Kuspit. In the 1960s, he was invited by George Wallace to study printmaking at McMaster University and would later become an artist in residence at Wilfrid Laurier University from 1969 to 1970, where he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws.

Find his painting, “The Parrot Play,” at the Petley Jones Gallery as part of the Timeless Canadian Painting exhibition.