Yves Gaucher

Yves Gaucher, (January 3, 1934 – September 8, 2000) He is considered a leader amongst Quebec's printmakers in the 1950s and 60s.

Early life and education Yves Gaucher was born on January 3, 1934, in Montreal to Tancrède Gaucher, a pharmacist and optician, and Laura Élie Gaucher, as the sixth of eight children. He attended the Collège Brébeuf in Montreal in 1948, but was expelled for drawing immoral pictures.

Music was very important to Gaucher. Raised in a musical home, where everyone played an instrument, Gaucher took up the trumpet at age twelve. His first full-time job was with the CBC, where he started in the mailroom. His ambition, however, was to become a radio announcer with his own jazz program. In the meantime he played gigs at night, and also organized a few jam sessions in 1955–56 at Galerie L'Actuelle, founded by Guido Molinari. Gaucher then returned to the École to study printmaking with Albert Dumouchel, where he created a controversial technique of heavy embossing. When met with criticism, he described his technique as a way of challenging the traditional "taboos". His teacher was master printmaker Albert Dumouchel (1916–1971).

In 1962, Gaucher travelled to Europe on a grant from the Canada Council. There, in Paris, he encountered the music of Anton Webern, which became a major influence on him. In his artworks, he began to incorporate more irregular geometries as opposed to strictly geometric forms, as well as greater contrasts of colour. This, he felt, would better represent the atonality of Webern's music. He garnered national and international attention, and won prizes at major print shows in Canada, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, and Grenchen, Switzerland.

In 1968, Gaucher was considered to be the leader of printmaking in Quebec, and he taught a printmaking class at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University). This class was attended by Montreal artist Betty Goodwin. Learning from Gaucher was pivotal to Goodwin's later success in the realm of printmaking. About Goodwin, Gaucher said: “I gave her everything I could because she was the most worthy student that I had. And looking back on it she was the most worthy student I have ever had…. It’s not just the work. It’s in the attitude, the commitment, the discipline and in the earnestness if you will.” From 1967 to 1969, Gaucher created a series of Grey on Grey paintings. These works, amongst his most important, were meant to be interpreted in two different ways. As individual paintings, they would be seen based on their linear movement; as a whole, they were an environment, based on colour.

Gaucher was crucial in the development of the colour band style of art, which was first created in 1970. This form of painting consists of wide stripes of uniform colours. Gaucher also extended colour band painting to include works of horizontal planes of contrasting colour. Gaucher's interest in mathematical art persisted, as he created works based on chaos theory and the diagonal line. However, a shoulder injury and other health problems would force him to paint on smaller surfaces, and he returned to creating collages, one of his earlier practices.

He was an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

He died in Montreal on September 8, 2000.