| Birth Date: | May 27, 1964 |
| Birth Place: | Quebec City, Quebec |
| Education: | Georges Gogardi Michel Labbé |
| Alma Mater: | Laval University |
| Known For: | Painter |
| Movement: | Automatisme Abstract Art |
| Awards: | Le Moulin à images Cirque du Soleil |
Jean Gaudreau (born May 27, 1964) is a Canadian artist, painter, and engraver.
Gaudreau was born in Quebec City and at the young age of 10, he was presented with the opportunity to learn drawing at the Séminaire des Pères Maristes[1] . As a child, he learned the "old fashioned way," the Mezzotint, as well as the importance of geometry in drawing.
When he was twelve years old, Gaudreau painted genre art scenes in Quebec's old port.[2] His first subjects were the stevedores, the boats, the docks, the river, and in the background, the buildings on Quebec City's headland, the cap Diamant. He outlined, in the manner of the countryside landscape painters,[3] the contours of the old buildings.
As a teenager, Gaudreau regularly visited Jean Paul Lemieux. The older man was always ready to underline to him the importance of drawing in the practice of painting. At 17 years old, Jean Gaudreau presented his first solo exhibition in an art gallery.[4]
Gaudreau later started experimenting with copper with the help of remains from the South turret of the Château Frontenac.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
According to Robert Bernier, "Chance encounters and the very spirit of his artistic production have led Gaudreau to associate, for many years, dance and performance art to his painting. Both by the themes he tackles and in the conception of the many events he put together, the body has become a central element of his work."[11] Nathalie Côté has said "he is without a doubt, a singular figure of the Quebec visual arts world."[12] Juliette Laurent said, "The brush strokes recall Riopelle, Pollock, Stella, Klimt and Ferron; some traces evoke the Automatists and the flights dear to the lyrical abstracts,""Admittedly, the artist avails himself of a postmodernism that tends to integrate all streams as bare witnesses the presence of figurative and non-figurative elements, women with lascivious faces, sinuous lines and the juxtaposition of vibrant hues and gilding. The predominant gestural as well as the intentionally less than finished and more primary aspect of his painting constitute trials at forging a personal style."[13]
In 2008, Gaudreau was presented as one of the figures of Quebec's contemporary art scene by Robert Lepage during the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City. In his animated film Le Moulin à images,[14] [15] Lepage projected images of artworks by Gaudreau next to works from Jean Paul Lemieux, Martin Bureau, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Alfred Pellan, among others, on grain silos located in Anse au Foulon in Quebec City's old port.