Background
EWEN, Paterson was born on April 7, 1925 in Montreal, Quebec.
artist and teacher of fine art
EWEN, Paterson was born on April 7, 1925 in Montreal, Quebec.
He attended McGill University from 1946-1947 where he studied geology, and fine arts with John Goodwin Lyman. The influence of Goodridge Roberts can be seen in Ewen"s works completed in the late 1940s. Ewen"s abstracts completed in the mid-1950s are more gestural than those completed ten years later where he explores geometric forms, loosely related to hard-edge painting.
in Ontario 1969, 1972-1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, Vancouver. British Columbia 1977, 1978; exhibitions in New Brunswick 1975, New Jersey, United States of America 1975, Calgary, Alberta 1980, Basel, Switzerland 1978, Denmark 1980-1981, Federation Republic of Germany 1981, Luxembourg 1981, Belgium 1981, Japan 1981, Venice, Italy 1982, London, 1982; Assistant Professor University of West. Ontario 1972-1987, Professor Emeritus since 1987His later works are large-scale wall pieces distinguished by the use of both traditional and unconventional materials. From 1948-1950 he took classes at the School of Art and Design at the, studying under Goodridge Roberts, Arthur Lismer, William Armstrong, and Jacques de Tonnancour. These early and often figurative works were followed by an exploration of abstraction which lasted through to the late sixites.
In 1968, Ewen moved to London, Ontario where he taught first at a local secondary school, then at the Visual Arts Department of the University of Western Ontario where he spent 14 years.
In 1971 Ewen"s working method and imagery changed dramatically. He started working on plywood instead of canvas.
The new pieces were physically large, often using several standard 4" x 8" sheets of plywood side by side. Ewan used a router to gouge out the surface, and attached objects to the surface with hardware.
In the shallow three-dimensional surface he had created, Ewen then painted powerful images that grew out of his boyhood interests in geology and space. and my gesture, my physical gesture in doing the painting was just that.
I kind of attacked lieutenant At one point I was just going zip-zip-zip as the router went through the wood Ewen"s career was often fragmented by overarching psychiatric problems and alcoholism. He suffered from severe manic depression and was plagued by poor mental health until his death in 2002.
Despite these challenges, Ewen was able to produce an incredibly diverse and influential body of work.
Paterson Ewen is represented in major museums and public galleries throughout Canada. The Art Gallery of Ontario holds a significant body of his work.
2000: Palazzo Grassi, Venice: Cosmos: From Goya to De Chirico, From Friedrich to Kiefer.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts]
While in Montreal, Ewen was exposed to the work of the artists of the Automatiste movement (see Jean-Paul Riopelle and Paul-Émile Borduas), and became a member of the Non-Figurative Artists" Association of Montreal, founded in 1956.