Article

Jean McEwen

Published Online May 25, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Jean McEwen, painter (b at Montréal 14 Dec 1923; d there 11 Jan 1999). Essentially self-taught, he worked in Paris in the early 1950s. Returning to Montréal, he was committed to nonfiguration, influenced by French impressionism and American abstract expressionism.

Jean McEwen

Jean McEwen, painter (b at Montréal 14 Dec 1923; d there 11 Jan 1999). Essentially self-taught, he worked in Paris in the early 1950s. Returning to Montréal, he was committed to nonfiguration, influenced by French impressionism and American abstract expressionism. Though McEwen always employed a hieratic symmetrical composition, his works were experiments in sensual colour, light and gesture.

Recipient of several Canadian awards and international honours, he was president of the Non-Figurative Artists Association of Montréal in the early 1960s and received several Canadian awards and international honours. A "lyrical abstractionist," he celebrated the potential of colour through a knowledgeable and skilful use of paint. In 1987 a major retrospective of his 20 years' work was held at the MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE MONTRÉAL. McEwen's later works continued his pursuit of chromatic interaction with paintings showing subtle references to the movement of the body and to nature.