To mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Jean-Paul Jérôme (February 19, 1928–August 14, 2004) and the 70th anniversary of the issuance of the Manifeste des Plasticiens (February 10, 1955), the exhibition Jean-Paul Jérôme: The Timeless Plasticien will be held at venues in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal on the following dates, with each featuring its own selection of works and catalogue:
- Masters Gallery, Calgary: September 5 to 14, 2024
- Canadian Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto: November 2 to 16, 2024
- Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée, Montreal: November 20, 2024 to February 23, 2025
René Viau, art critic and author, describes the event as follows:
Two genuinely avant-garde movements originating in Montréal—those of the Automatistes and the Plasticiens—changed the face of Canadian painting in the 20th century.
The great artists who took part in those movements paved the way to modernity for the generations that followed. Jean-Paul Jérôme was one of them.
The Manifeste des Plasticiens, written by Rodolphe de Repentigny (Jauran) and co-signed by Jean-Paul Jérôme, Louis Belzile, and Fernand Toupin, was issued on February 10, 1955. Among other things, it declared:
As indicated by the name they have chosen for their group, in their work the Plasticiens primarily focus on plastic elements: tone, texture, forms, lines, the overall effect of the painting and the relationships among those elements, embraced as ends in themselves.
The Plasticiens wanted to rid painting of any incidental content. They proclaimed that their paintings were to aim for “complete autonomy as objects.”
Jean-Paul Jérôme remained committed to geometric abstraction and the principles of the Plasticien movement throughout his life, making his artistic journey an extension of its aesthetic ideals. This exhibition is intended to show the fullness of the subsequent phases in his creative development.
Thus, following initial works of a stylized, figurative stamp, from 1956 to 1964 Jérôme explored effects of blendings and imbrications. He then shifted towards the large, exuberantly rhythmic orchestrations of colour of 1970, with networks formed by combinations of planes, lines and markings. Gradually, in the years from 1990 to 2000, the painter turned his focus to circular arcs. Curls, curves, angles and structuring lines delineated colour, initially applied in flat tints and then, thanks to the use of decoupage, through collage and two-dimensional relief. Those dancing, syncopated decoupages and collages ultimately ushered in the colourful, complexly structured compositions of broken lines of the artist’s final years.
Both responsive and intentional, fluid and emphatic, Jean-Paul Jérôme’s painting very freely embraced the rhythms and movements that burst forth from his hand. Though rigorous, his geometry was coupled with his imagination and joy in painting to express a kind of sensorial vitality with élan.