Galerie Molinas

Yves Gaucher, painter and engraver (Montreal, 3 Jan 1934-; d there 8 sept. 2000). From the early 1960s until his death, he is one of the most important abstract artists of Montreal. It is the quality of his prints that first attracts the attention. The principles of his painting are already apparent in a series of engravings, in homage to Webern (1963), inspired by a visit to Paris during which he discovered that his artistic affinities are in New York and not in Europe. Although his work developed parallel to the technique of the coloured field of American painters, his formal choices are closer to the spirit of his Montréal contemporaries.
Surfaces and forms of Gaucher are abstract and carried out in the hard-edge (sharp edges), and it points out in the challenges of the "relational" composition in seeking the balance of structural components (which, since 1973, great value and unequal intensity colored plans) to achieve a balance of surface where points of tension. Grey on grey "paintings (1967-1969), intended to be seen individually depending on their movement based on the line and together as an environmental colour experience, one of the most remarkable achievements of abstract art.

Simplifying greatly, it could be said that the following Gaucher's problem is to synthesize all the experiences of the series of the "grey" in a single table in one way or another and he managed with an equal scope and a range of emotions, especially in the tables "Pale" which make their appearance in 1988-1989. Throughout this experience, it is considering formal problems as metaphors of existential difficulties and reaffirms the tradition of painting abstract as ethical and spiritual research. Until his death, left its responsibilities of teacher to the U. Concordia in Montreal and exposes new boards regularly. In 1992 the Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, offers a rare opportunity to see a presentation of all the tables 'grey on grey.