Artist Biography & Facts

Andre Jasmin

Andre Jasmin BA, CAS, AANFM (1922 – 2020)

A prominent Canadian painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and educator, Louis Andre Jasmin was born in Montreal, Quebec and died there. For almost 30 years he taught at the university level in Montreal, first at the Ecole des Beaux-arts and then as Director of the Art Department at the University of Quebec. His paintings, drawings, and prints are in the permanent collections of over a dozen Canadian museums including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada.

His mediums included oils, acrylics, watercolors, gouache*, tempera*, charcoal, colored chalk, serigraph*, and mixed mediums. His subjects included portraits, nudes, figures, dancers, still life, and abstraction (e.g. color, shape, line, and texture). His most well known styles were Abstract Expressionism*, Automatism*, Fauvism*, and Naturalism*. His askART auction record has many excellent illustrations of his works.

Jasmin’s education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Montreal (1942), and post graduate studies at the Ecole du Meuble, Montreal (1942 – 1943), where he studied under Paul-Emile Borduas and Maurice Gagnon. He also attended Alfred Pellan’s workshop.

Jasmin’s career began with designing sets and costumes for theatre and ballet groups (c.1945 – 1950) and with teaching private classes in painting and art history (c.1950 – 1959). He began teaching art history at the Ecole des Beaux-arts, Montreal in about 1958; and, when that school integrated with the University of Quebec at Montreal (c. 1969) he became Director of the Art Department and worked there until 1987. During this time he was also a frequent contributor and host of radio programs on the arts.

He was a member of the Contemporary Art Society (c.1943 – 1948) and the Association des Artistes Non Figuratifs de Montreal (c. 1956 – 1961). (1)

His works were featured in group exhibitions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring exhibitions (1945 and 1950); in “Some French Canadian Painters”, an exhibition of paintings circulated by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1956 – 1957);  “35 Painters of Today”, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1957); “Oscar Cahen Paintings / Andre Jasmin Serigraphs”,  Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1960); “Automatism and Surrealism in Quebec Engraving”, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1976); "Three Generations of Quebec Art", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1976); “The Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal”, Sir George Williams Art Galleries, Montreal and touring (1983 – 1985); “Robert Ayre: The Critic and the Collection”, Concordia Art Gallery, Montreal (1992); “Donations 1989 – 1994”, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1995); “Quebec Print Art”, Quebec Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec City (1996); and in “As Much as Possible Given the Time and Space Allotted”, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal (2009).

His works have also been shown in solo and group exhibitions at prominent commercial galleries such as Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montreal; Galerie Bernard, Montreal; Dominion Gallery*, Montreal; Galerie Jean-Pierre Valentin, Montreal; Galerie Libre, Montreal; and Collector's Gallery, New York City.

According to the Canadian Heritage Information Network* and individual museum sources, his works are in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), Joliette Art Museum (Quebec), Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Concordia University, Montreal), Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa), Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (Quebec), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec), Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire (Quebec), Musee Laurier (Victoriaville, Quebec), Quebec Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec City), University of Montreal Art Collection (Quebec), University of Quebec at Montreal (Quebec), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa).

His honors and awards include two Canada Council* grants (1961 and 1964).
 
Footnote:
(1) Please note: A few sources note that Jasmin was associated with the “Group Sagittaires”; however, more precisely, "Les Sagittaires" was an exhibition held at Dominion Gallery*, Montreal from May 1 to 9, 1943. ‘It was organized by Maurice Gagnon following an idea by Paul-Emile Borduas and Guy Viau (Maurice Gagnon and Paul-Emile Borduas were then teachers at the Ecole du Meuble). Its objective was to promote the work of young artists. The exhibition featured 23 young painters under 30 including 11 students of Paul-Emile Borduas.’ Source: Centre International d'Art Contemporain Montreal. – MDS
 
Sources – Books and Catalogues:

Translocated Modernisms: Paris and Other Lost Generations (2016), edited by Emily Ballantyne, Marta Dvorak, Dean Irvine; University of Ottawa Press, Ottawa

Andre Jasmin: Architectures Imaginaires (2013), by Robert Bernier; Galerie Bernard, Montreal

The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century (2010), by Brian Foss, Anne Whitelaw and Sandra Paikowsky; Oxford University Press

A History of Art in Quebec: The Collection of the Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec (2004); edited by Yves Lacasse and John R Porter; Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec, Quebec

Biographical Index of Artists in Canada (2003), by Evelyn de Rostaing McMann; University of Toronto Press, Toronto

The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar (see askART Publications)

Egregore: A History of the Montreal Automatist Movement (1998), by Ray Ellenwood; published by McArthur and Company, Toronto, Ontario

A to Z of Canadian Art: artists & art terms” (1997), by Blake McKendry; Published by B. McKendry, Kingston, Ontario

Donations 1989-1994 (1995), by Josee Belisle; Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, Quebec

Catalogue of the National Gallery of Canada: Canadian Art Volume Two G – K (1994), edited by Pierre B. Landry, Claire Champ et al; Published by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Achieving the Modern: Canadian Abstract Painting and Design in the 1950s (1993), by Robert McKaskell et al; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg

Robert Ayre: The Critic and the Collection (1992), by Concordia University Art Gallery; Concordia Art Gallery, Montreal

Art and Architecture in Canada (1991), by Loren R. Lerner and Mary F. Williamson (see askART Publications)

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Spring Exhibitions 1880 – 1970 (1988), by Evelyn de R. McMann (see askART Publications)

Guide to Exhibited Artists: North American Painters (1985), Clio Press; published by Clio Press, Oxford, England

The Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal (1983), by Sandra Paikowsky; Sir George Williams Art Galleries, Montreal

Three Generations of Quebec Art: 1940, 1950, 1960." (1976), by Fernande Saint-Martin; Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art

A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume Three, Jacobi – Lismer (1975), by Colin S. MacDonald; Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Limited, Ottawa, Ontario

Creative Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth Century Creative and Performing Arts (1972), by Helen M. Rodney; University of Toronto Press

Sir George Williams University Collection of Art (1971), by Edwy F. Cooke and Douglass Burns Clarke; Sir George Williams University, Montreal

Modern Painting in French Canada (1967), by Guy Viau; Department of Cultural Affairs, Quebec

35 Painters of Today” (1957), Fernand Leduc et al; Cambridge Press, Montreal
 
Sources – Websites:
Artexte
Artshift
Canadian Heritage Information Network*
Centre International d'Art Contemporain Montreal
Dictionnaire des artistes de l'objet d'art au Quebec
E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario
Galerie Jean-Pierre Valentin
Library and Archives Canada

* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com. Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx

Written and contributed to askART by M.D. Silverbrooke.