Ewen, Paterson

▪ 2003

      Canadian artist (b. April 7, 1925, Montreal, Que.—d. Feb. 17, 2002, London, Ont.), was a relentlessly innovative artist whose expressionistic paintings of the 1970s and '80s attracted widespread interest. Ewen studied at McGill University, Montreal, and at the Art Association of Montreal's School of Art and Design. His earliest paintings were representational, but from the mid-1950s his work became ever more abstract. In 1971 Ewen entered a new stage in his artistic development. He began painting on plywood sheets instead of on canvas and using hand tools to gouge out images of meteorologic and cosmological phenomena. He was soon recognized as one of Canada's most original artists. From 1972 to 1988 Ewen taught at the University of Western Ontario. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1975, and in 1982 he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale.

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