Charles Gagnon

Career Charles Gagnon was born and grew up in Montreal. He studied graphic art and interior design at Parsons School of Design, New York, then went on to the New York School of Interior Design. He also attended New York University evening classes, studying with Paul Brach (1955–1960). The city's flourishing experimental avant-garde fascinated him and contributed to the development of his approach: He was in New York during the time when artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns were detaching themselves from Abstract Expressionism. During those years, stimulated by the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum, as well as by British painters he saw in New York, and by the city itself, particularly its signs and the worn-out surfaces of some of its buildings, Later, he was to call himself a member of the New York School of Montreal, although no such school ever existed. Their arrangement fragmented the composition, creating window-like openings. The particular interest of this series, entitled Gap Paintings, lies in the spatial ambiguity caused by the interplay of formal opposites – between the straight line and splashes of paint or gestural strokes, between the flatness of the coloured surfaces and the sense of depth created by their superimposition. His work is in many public galleries, including the National Gallery of Canada.

He died of a stroke in Montreal on April 16, 2003. The Charles Gagnon Master of Fine Arts Admission Scholarship was established in 2004 by the Department of Visual Arts, University of Ottawa after his death.

Personal life Gagnon's daughter is writer, cultural critic, curator, and educator Monika Kin Gagnon, whose work explores race, ethnicity, and gender in media, alternative media, and the cultural effects of globalization. More recently, she has also engaged in projects surrounding the world exhibition Expo '67.

Legacy In 2025, "Charles Gagnon: The Colour of Time, the Sound of Space", with essays by Roald Nasgaard, Olivier Asselin and Michiko Yajima Gagnon, edited by Monika Kin Gagnon was published by Figure 1 Publishing.