Claude Tousignant

Claude Tousignant (Canadian, b. 1932) is an artist who has contributed significantly to the development of geometric abstraction in Canada. Tousignant attended the School of Art and Design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1948-51) and briefly at the Academie Ranson in Paris, before returning to Montreal in 1952. He is considered a member of the second generation of the modern art movement in Montreal known as “Les Pasticiens,” who believed that painting should be pure form and colour, thus avoiding spontaneous expression. In 1962, Tousignant saw the work of Barnett Newman at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and remarked on his ability "to say as much as possible with as few elements as possible." Soon after, Tousignant introduced the hard-edged circular form with concentric rings of contrasting colours into his geometric paintings and prints, which would become his predominant motif and which would become known as targets, gongs and chromatic accelerators.