THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY

Claude Tousignant

Ovale, 1969

805 TRU Way, Kamloops
Old Main building's atrium; installed above the Starbucks

Claude Tousignant is a Canadian abstract painter and sculptor who lives and works in Montreal, Quebec. Tousignant was a member of the Modernist painting movement, les Plasticiens, formed in 1955 in reaction to the Automatiste movement, well known in Canadian art for expressive, spontaneous paintings. The work of les Plasticiens is characterized by hard edged geometric abstraction that is non-representational and based on rational principles.  

Tousignant sought purity in art, producing paintings that emphasize colour and form. In his well known “bulls-eye” paintings, concentric bands of colour vibrate inward and outward in an optical display of technical virtuosity. During the 1960s, when Ovale was made, Tousignant produced a series of paintings with variations on colorful themes: "chromatic transformers," "chromatic accelerators," and "gongs.” Ovale is a key example of this series. Its scale and radiating colours are intended to evoke a bodily response in the viewer through its optical impact and scale.

Tousignant’s work is represented in major museum collections across Canada. This painting was previously shown at the National Gallery of Canada in 1973 and represents an important movement in the history of Canadian art. This work was acquired by the Kamloops Art Gallery in 2014 as a gift from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.  It is currently on loan to Thompson Rivers University (TRU) where it is installed in proximity to the Visual and Performing Arts Department. By exhibiting this work in a busy building on TRU’s campus, the Gallery endeavors to inspire young art students in their own work and to share this work with a broader public.

Claude Tousignant (b.1932)
Ovale, 1969
acrylic on canvas
243.8 x 487.7 cm
Collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery, gift of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria