Jean-Paul Armand Mousseau

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

This remarkable painting by Jean-Paul Armand Mousseau is a preparatory study for a project realized in association with renowned Canadian ceramist Claude Vermette - a long time friend and collaborator of the artist. Mousseau and Vermette met in the 1940s at the College Notre-Dame de Montréal, where they attended the art classes of the influential Frère Jérôme Paradis. They became close to Paul-Émile Borduas and the members of the Automatist group, and Mousseau was a signatory of their 1948 vanguard manifesto Refus global. Vermette, only 16 at the time, entirely embraced the group's artistic ideal of emancipation, but was judged too young by Borduas to be a signatory. The association of these two like-minded creators was motivated by a shared commitment to transdisciplinarity and the common belief that art should be made accessible to all. One of their earliest projects, completed in 1958, was a ceramic mural commissioned by the College Notre-Dame de Montréal. The following year, an important exhibition of their works, entitled Opposition 1959, was held at Galerie Denyse Delrue in Montreal. Of all the duo's notable accomplishments, their most outstanding achievement is perhaps the 1966 Peel station project of the Montreal subway, which was originally comprised of 54 colourful ceramic circles integrated into the modernist architecture of the station.