# Fernand Toupin

Fernand Toupin RCA (1930, Montreal–2009 Terrebonne) was a Québécois abstract painter best known as a first-generation member of the avant-garde movement known as Les Plasticiens. Like other members of the group, his shaped paintings drew upon the tradition of geometric abstraction, and he cited Mondrian as a forerunner. In 1959, Toupin began working with a more lyrical, though abstract, way of painting. The last decade of his career saw his return to geometric abstraction. Like Jean-Paul Mousseau, Toupin created works which lay outside the standard boundaries of art such as his stage sets for ballets.

## Solo exhibitions

Beginning with his first early-career retrospectives in 1967 and 1972 organized by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, Toupin's work was the subject of several gallery and museum exhibitions, both in Canada and abroad. The Musée d'art de Joliette organized a retrospective in 1986 and the Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent in 2003, among others.
1959 Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal
1962 Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montréal
1965 Galerie Camille Hébert, Montréal
1967 Retrospective, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
1970 Galerie Arnaud, Paris
1970 Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montréal
1972 Galerie Arnaud, Paris
1972 Retrospective, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris
1974 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal
1974 Suite d’Automne, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
1976 Galerie Arnaud, Paris
1976 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal
1976 Olympic Stadium, Montréal
1977 Place des Arts, Montréal
1977 Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, Mont-Orford
1979 Galerie Frédéric Palardy, Saint-Lambert
1979 Claude Gadoury Art Moderne, Montréal
1980 Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montréal
1980 Dominion-Corinth Gallery, Ottawa
1981 Retrospective, Collège André-Grasset, Montréal
1982 Galerie Lacerte Guimont, Sillery
1983 Galerie Frédéric Palardy, Saint-Lambert
1984 Galerie Présence, Montréal
1985 La Galerie, Montréal
1986 Galerie Frédéric Palardy, Saint-Lambert
1986 Retrospective, Musée d'art de Joliette
1988 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal
1990 Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal
1995 Riverin-Arlogos Art Contemporain, Eastman
2001 Galerie Bernard, Montréal
2003 Retrospective, Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-du-Loup
2004 Retrospective, Galerie Montcalm, Gatineau
2005 Galerie Bernard, Montréal
2005 Retrospective, Galerie Renée-Blain, Brossard
2006 Retrospective, Musée régional de la Côte Nord, Sept-Iles
2007 Retrospective, Acadia University Art Gallery, Wolfsville, Nova Scotia
2008 Retrospective, Colline Gallery, Edmundston, New Brunswick
2009 Galerie Bernard, Montréal
2009 Retrospective, Maison de la culture Villeray, Montréal
2010 Retrospective, miniature works, Galerie Bernard, Montréal
2011 Retrospective, Galerie Lamoureux Ritzenhoff, Montréal
2013 Galerie Bernard, Montréal
2015 Galerie Bernard, Montréal

## Selected group exhibitions

Toupin showed in the exhibitions of the Plasticien group such as the 1955 show at L'Échourie, Montréal as well as in many exhibitions later, both in Canada and abroad. His work was included in the 1975 Canadian canvas show, a travelling exhibit of large paintings to nine Canadian museums and in the 1992 Les Plasticiens exhibition, National Gallery of Canada and in the 2013 Les Plasticiens and the 1950s–1960s, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. In 2022, he was included in Territoires insoupçonnés, Galerie Bernard, Montréal.
1954 Petit salon d’été, Librairie-galerie Tranquille, Montréal
1955 Les Plasticiens, L'Échourie, Montréal
1956 Toupin and Belzile, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gallery XII
1956 Jeune sculpture, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montréal
1956 Les moins de trente ans, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montréal
1956 Duo Exhibition, Canada/United States, Parma Gallery, New York
1958 Salon de la jeune peinture, École des beaux-arts de Montréal (winner of first prize)
1958 Les lauréats du Salon de la jeune peinture 1958, Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal
1959 Art abstrait, École des beaux-arts de Montréal
1962 Two Worlds Festival, Spoleto, Italy
1966 Canadian Art, travelling exhibit across Canada from the Sayde and Samuel Bronfman collection
1970 Québec Pavillon, Osaka World Expo, Japan
1972 Fourth International Paintings Festival, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (winner of national prize for Canada)
1973 Galerie Raymonde Cazenave, Paris
1975 Canadian canvas, travelling exhibit of large paintings to nine Canadian museums
1976 Randall Galleries, New York
1977 Jauran et les premiers plasticiens, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
1980 Art Expo, International Art Exposition, New York Coliseum, New York
1980 La collection permanente du Musée, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
1980 Dix ans de propositions géométriques, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
1980 Randall Galleries, New York
1984 Arte Universal A Través De Los Tiempos, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
1987 Accents de la collection Lavalin, Galerie Lavalin, Montréal
1989 Avant-garde des années ’50 et ’60, Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal
1991 Tokyo Central Museum, Japan
1992 La collection: tableau inaugural, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
1992 Les Plasticiens, National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Winnipeg Art Gallery
2005 Les Plasticiens, Galerie Simon Blais, Montréal
2008 Cape Breton University Art Gallery, Sydney, Nova Scotia
2011 Quiet Mutinies : Art in Québec in the 1950s, The Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary, Alberta
2012 La question de l’abstraction, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
2013 Les Plasticiens et les années 1950 et 1960, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
2013 The Plasticiens and Beyond: Montreal 1955-1970, Varley Art Gallery, Markham, Ontario
2014 Mid-Century Modern, Museum London, London, Ontario
2014 Dialogues formels, Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec
2015 Dialogues de l’œil, Permanent Collection of the City of Gatineau
2016 Abstracta Delecta: The Quebec Painters, Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C.
2017 Montréal d’hier à aujourd’hui, Galerie Michel-Ange, Montréal
2019 Couleurs Manifestes, Musée des Beaux-arts de Sherbrooke
2022 Territoires insoupçonnés, Galerie Bernard, Montréal

## Selected miscellaneous exhibitions

* 1970–72 Tapestries, ateliers Pierre Daquin, Paris
* 1971 Germinal, mural for the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
* 1974 Set creation for "Au-delà du temps/Time out of mind", Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal
* 1975 Errances, art book on poems by Fernand Ouellette including seven lithographs
* 1977 Set creation for "La Scouine", Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
* 1977 Hochelaga, mural for the Wilfrid-Pelletier Concert Hall at Place des Arts in Montréal
* 1978 Prochain épisode, art book on the novel by Hubert Aquin including 14 lithographs and one etching
* 2005 Participates in the documentary of André Desrochers, "L’intuition intuitionnée" on the first movement of Plasticiens

## Selected public collections

Toupin's work is in the public art collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec; the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax; and in many other public institutions, both in Canada and abroad.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke
Musée d’art de Joliette
Musée Laurier
Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-du-Loup
Place des arts, Montréal
University of Montreal
City of Montreal (Saint-Laurent district)
City of Brossard
City of Gatineau
Selection Reader`s Digest
Loto-Québec
Banque Nationale du Canada
University of Lethbridge, Alberta
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Museum London, London, Ontario
Statische Kunstgalerie, Bochum, Germany
Centre national d'art contemporain, Paris

## Memberships

Toupin was a founding member of the Association of Non-Figurative Artists of Montreal (1956). He also was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1977).

## Awards

* 1958 First prize, Salon de la jeune peinture, École des beaux-arts de Montréal
* 1972 Fourth international paintings Festival, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (winner of the national prize for Canada)