The second generation of the Plasticiens, dissatisfied with what they viewed as an insufficient breakage with the spontaneity of the Automatistes, emerged at the end of the 1950s with a challenge to the established limits of abstract painting. Headed by Claude Tousignant and Guido Molinari, the so-called post-Plasticiens would push abstraction into larger, more severe and more orderly directions, defined by flat surfaces and hard-edged geometries, with the aim of dissolving the tensions of figure / ground and vertical / horizontal relationships and achieving the autonomous painted object.

By the 1960s, Tousignant would focus his painting around the motif of the circle, finding in that inward turn of the picture plane something of the chromatic balance he was looking for: “I was fascinated by the circle as a form and the equal tensions to all peripheries. In my 1956 two-shape paintings I was trying to equalize the tension between the two given forms—the vertical and the horizontal—and became interested because the circle had equal tension all around.”

A pivotal moment for Tousignant was his exposure to the work of American Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman in New York in 1962. In Newman’s colour fields, Tousignant saw the harmony, economy and kineticism that he was looking for in his own painting: “I found a space of dramatic beauty. It is exactly what I was trying to do in 1956: to say as much as possible with as few elements as possible.” Tousignant quickly introduced what would become his signature vocabulary into his geometric paintings: the circle. With this, geometry could be reduced to a simple line or boundary, existing as a harmonious formal tension without the disruption of angular horizontal-vertical relationships. The following years would see his first successful forays into the use of this form and its capacity to express the nuances and rhythms of chromatic effects, expressed in radiating rings and chromatic sequences.

Je suis le Je suis de la Jesuise… emerges from this early exploration of the obliteration of the figure / ground dichotomy and the emphasis on painting as a holistic visual experience. Here, a bright yellow background is superseded by a thin, fluorescent green circle. Two vertical orange bands square off the picture plane, bounding the central circle while compromising the austerity and authority of the rectangular canvas. By the end of the decade, the balanced tensions found in Tousignant’s paintings would expand to include the structure of the canvas itself, with his polychromatic “targets” and “bullseyes” rhythmically rendered on perfectly circular, often expansive canvases. However, it is perhaps at this earlier point of his hard-edge painting that we see a more compelling expression of his goals, with the primacy of sensation made all the more apparent by the simplicity of its enunciation. The tonal shifts between line and colour here are subtle, appearing as seams or wrinkles in the surface rather than bold declarations or strumming vibrations. Here, through closely graded tones of vibrant colour, Tousignant presents an expansive, vibrant pictorial harmony.

Tousignant’s breakthroughs of the 1960s were quickly recognized and marked by inclusion in several important shows that decade. Two came in 1965, the year following this painting: first The Responsive Eye, an influential exhibition of Op Art at the Museum of Modern Art, followed by representing Canada at the 8th São Paolo Biennial. (Works shown in that latter exhibition, including La vierge au lit and Je suis Ernestin, le diamant des dames, both from 1964, also showcase the vibrant neon-yellow palette seen in the present work.) Wide recognition in Canada and internationally followed, culminating in 1973 with a major retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada.

For the biography on Luc Plamondon in PDF format (in French and English), please click here.