Rodolphe de Repentigny

Rodolphe de Repentigny (11 February 1926 24 July 1959) was a painter, art and literary critic for the newspaper La Presse in Montreal (1952–1959), theorist, photographer and mountaineer. He was a key member of Les Plasticiens and was the writer of the Manifeste des plasticiens. He painted using the pseudonym Jauran.

Career Rodolphe de Repentigny was born in Ville Saint-Laurent, a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec. He studied at the Collège St. Laurent and became interested in painting but was persuaded by his family to go to the University of Montreal where he studied mathematics and psychology (1947–1949).

He then travelled to Paris to study literature and philosophy at Sorbonne University (1950–1951) and while there became interested in non-figurative art when he saw the work of Mondrian among others. When he returned from Paris, he got a job as a journalist, writing art and literary criticism for the newspaper La Presse (1952–1959). He also wrote for other journals in Quebec. In 1955, de Repentigny (under the pseudonym Jauran) wrote the Manifeste des plasticiens. It was signed by all the members of the group. In 1957, he was elected President of the Association of International Critics Canada.

In 1959, during a mountaineering trip with friends to Lake Louise in the Rockies, he fell into a crevasse while crossing the Victoria Glacier and died. He was 33 years old.

Selected exhibitions 1954: "Les Plasticiens", Tranquille bookstore, Montreal; 1955: "Les Plasticiens", Galerie de l'Échourie; 1959: Jauran's photos were exhibited following his death at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal; Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec; Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal;