Jean Gaudreau (born May 27, 1964) is a Canadian artist, painter and engraver in Quebec City.
In 2008, Jean was presented as one of the figures of Quebec's contemporary art scene by Robert Lepage during the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City. In his animated film Le Moulin à images, Lepage projected images of artworks by Gaudreau next to works from Jean Paul Lemieux, Martin Bureau, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Alfred Pellan, among others, on grain silos located in Anse au Foulon, in Quebec City's old port.
Biography
Gaudreau was born in Quebec City. At 10 years old, his mother, Claudia Tremblay, a plastic art teacher, musician and painter, entrusted her son to Sister Alice Pruneau to teach him the basics of drawing at the Séminaire des Pères Maristes in Quebec City. As a child, he learned the "old fashioned way," the Mezzotint, as well as the importance of geometry in drawing. Pruneau taught him the rules of perspective and vanishing points as well as the Golden Triangle. Gaudreau's mother also played a dominant role in the apprenticeship of her son's plastic practices.
Between Tradition and Modernity (1974–1985) When he was twelve years old, Gaudreau painted genre art scenes in Quebec's old port. His first subjects were the stevedores, the boats, the docks, the river, and in the background, the buildings on Quebec City's headland, the cap Diamant. He outlined, in the manner of the countryside landscape painters, the contours of the old buildings. The Château Frontenac, the Séminaire de Québec, and the Price Building were favorite subjects of the teenager.
Isle-aux-Coudres
Until 1985, the paintings of rural landscapes in Charlevoix were a curiosity item for denizens and tourists of L'Isle-aux-Coudres. The summers of the artist's youth were spent painting landscapes, and his paintings were sold outside a hotel of the island. It was a significant period for the teenager, who regularly visited Jean Paul Lemieux. The older man was always ready to underline to Gaudreau the importance of drawing in the practice of painting. At 17 years old, Jean Gaudreau presented his first solo exhibition in an art gallery; hundreds of his paintings were acquired by private or public collections, and several mural painting experiments would give way to more important commissions.
Second Life
Gaudreau started experimenting with copper with the help of remains from the South turret of the Château Frontenac. After significant work with these pieces, the artist embedded them in his paintings, thus giving them a second life.
"By using a material out of the past—the copper—transforming it into a contemporary character, the artist explores what could be described as the point of metamorphosis of the medium, trying to answer questions such as 'What happens when these remains begin a new life?"
Reaction
According to Robert Bernier, "Chance encounters and the very spirit of his artistic production have led Gaudreau to associate, for many years, dance and performance art to his painting. Both by the themes he tackles and in the conception of the many events he put together, the body has become a central element of his work."
Another has said "He is without a doubt, a singular figure of the Quebec visual arts world."
"The brush strokes recall Riopelle, Pollock, Stella, Klimt and Ferron; some traces evoke the Automatists and the flights dear to the lyrical abstracts," writes Juliette Laurent. "Admittedly, the artist avails himself of a postmodernism that tends to integrate all streams as bare witnesses the presence of figurative and non-figurative elements, women with lascivious faces, sinuous lines and the juxtaposition of vibrant hues and gilding. The predominant gestural as well as the intentionally less than finished and more primary aspect of his painting constitute trials at forging a personal style."