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Charles Gagnon

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For the Quebec separatist, seeCharles Gagnon (separatist).

Charles Gagnon
Born(1934-05-23)May 23, 1934
Montreal,Quebec
DiedApril 16, 2003(2003-04-16)(aged 68)
Montreal, Quebec
Education
Known forPainting, photography, film
Spouse
Michiko Yajima
​
(m.1960)​
AwardsGovernor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts(2002)

Charles Gagnon(May23, 1934 – April16, 2003) was a multidisciplinary artist known for hispainting,photographyand film.[1]

Career

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Charles Gagnon was born and grew up in Montreal. He studied graphic art and interior design atParsons School of Design,New York, then went on to theNew York School of Interior Design.[2]He also attendedNew York Universityevening classes, studying withPaul Brach(1955-1960).[2]The city’s flourishing experimental avant-garde fascinated him and contributed to the development of his approach:[3]He was in New York during the time when artistsRobert RauschenbergandJasper Johnswere detaching themselves fromAbstract Expressionism.[4]During those years, stimulated by the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum, as well as by British painters he saw in New York,[2]and by the city itself, particularly its signs and the worn-out surfaces of some of its buildings,[3]he was a painter and photographer.[5]Later, he was to call himself a member of the New York School of Montreal, although no such school ever existed.[4]

When he returned to Montreal, he began to produce not only paintings but box-like constructions.[5]He had begun incorporating letters and numbers into his paintings in New York, but now began to create large square and rectangular chromatic fields that seem to nestle into one another.[6]Their arrangement fragmented the composition, creating window-like openings. The particular interest of this series, entitledGap Paintings,lies in the spatial ambiguity caused by the interplay of formal opposites – between the straight line and splashes of paint or gestural strokes, between the flatness of the coloured surfaces and the sense of depth created by their superimposition.[6]The Gapseries (1962-1963) also had a landscape dimension, as suggested by green areas and vistas into the pictorial space.[6]

Following this series, Gagnon developed the idea of contrasting surfaces and materials.[5]He also madesilkscreenprints, audio collage and experimental film.[5]His painting can be seen mostly as falling within several major periods: thewhite paintings(1967-1969), theMarkers / Marqueurs(1973-1974), theSplitscreenspaceseries (1976 to 1983) and theword paintings(1986 to 1990).[5]Gagnon also worked in photography, especially in the late 1970s. In the 1990s, he alternated between photography and painting, until he combined both.[5]As one art historian wrote, his art is a confirmation that painting can be at once "abstract, representational, figurative, and conceptual".[7]

Gagnon had a number ofretrospectivesand solo and group exhibitions during his lifetime. TheMusée d'art contemporain de Montréalshowed his overall body of work in 2001. In 2000, theCanadian Museum of Contemporary Photography,and theNational Gallery of Canada,Ottawa held a show of his photography; and in 2004, the National Gallery of Canada had a show of his work.[8]His work is in many public galleries, including the National Gallery of Canada.[1]

Gagnon began his teaching career at Loyola College (nowConcordia University) in Montreal. In 1975, he entered the Department of Visual Arts at theUniversity of Ottawa,where he taught photography and media arts until his retirement in 1996.[9]

He died of a stroke in Montreal on April 16, 2003.[10]The Charles Gagnon Master of Fine Arts Admission Scholarship was established in 2004 by the Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa after his death.[9]

Awards

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Personal life

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Gagnon's daughter is writer, cultural critic, curator, and educator Monika Kin Gagnon,[12]whose work explores race, ethnicity, and gender in media, alternative media, and the cultural effects of globalization.[13]More recently, she has also engaged in projects surrounding the world exhibitionExpo '67.

References

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  1. ^ab"Charles Gagnon".National Gallery of Canada.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  2. ^abcNasgaard 2008,p. 200.
  3. ^abMurray, Joan (1999).Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century.Toronto: Dundurn. p. 123.OCLC260193722.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  4. ^abGagnon, François-Marc."Charles Gagnon'sFeeler Green Stage 2(1966) and the process of painting ".www.klinkhoff.ca.Alan Klinkhoff Gallery.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  5. ^abcdefGodmer, Gilles."Charles Gagnon".www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.Canadian Encyclopedia.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  6. ^abcBeaudry, Eve-Lyne; Fraser, Marie."Contemporary Art in Québec, p. 20".Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  7. ^Nasgaard 2008,p. 204.
  8. ^Godmer, Giles."Charles Gagnon: The Appropriation of Meaning".www.cfmdc.org.CFMDC. Archived fromthe originalon December 2, 2021.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  9. ^abCousineau-Levine, Penny."Charles Gagnon".arts.uottawa.ca.University of Ottawa, 2010.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  10. ^"Charles Gagnon, obituary".www.newspapers.com.The Gazette, p. 50, April 19, 2003.RetrievedJanuary 5,2021.
  11. ^"Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts Archives".en.ggarts.ca.Governor General of Canada.RetrievedAugust 17,2022.
  12. ^"Monika Kim Gagnon".www.encyclopedia.com.encyclopedia.com.RetrievedApril 19,2021.
  13. ^"Monika Kim Gagnon".www.concordia.ca.Concordia University, Montreal.RetrievedApril 19,2021.

Further reading

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