Jean McEwen

McEwen was born in 1923 Montreal to a Scottish father and French-Canadian mother.[4] He began his working life as a pharmacist, having received a degree in pharmacy from the University of Montreal in 1947.[5]

McKewen was self-taught as a painter. His first exhibition, was the 1949 Annual Spring Exhibiton, a group show Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.[6] Following the positive reception of his work as a painter in Montreal, he quit his job as a pharmacist and left Montreal for Paris.[5][6] In Paris, he visited museums and was introduced to the painters Jean-Paul Riopelle and Sam Francis.[6]

From 1982 to 1994, he was professor at Concordia University.[7] In 1998, he received the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas from the Government of Quebec.[8] In 1987, McEwen's work was the subject of a retrospective Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal,[3] and a second commemorative exhibition in 2019.[9]

His work is included in the collections of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec,[2] the Museum of Modern Art, New York[10] and the National Gallery of Canada[11]