In his Accélérateurs chromatiques, produced between 1967 and 1969, Claude Tousignant set out to conquer the pictorial field by devising a series of circular paintings of incomparable impact. One of the most astounding pieces from this body of work is undoubtedly Varèse: Accélérateur chromatique 66-68, whose monumental diameter glorifies geometric abstraction, and in which Tousignant reinvents the language of colour. On its surface, thirty-three concentric rings are divided into seven distinct colours whose tonal sequence follows a rigorous method and precise calculations. The dazzling Day-Glo hues direct the gaze from the tondo’s beating heart to its periphery—where a quinacridone violet guides the eye—like concentric waves around a pebble tossed into a pond. The stimulating colour combinations create a push-pull effect—a third dimension between the viewer and the work. Confronted with the dizzying experience of pure colour, the “body in space becomes the fixed axis of every circular movement,” writes author Paulette Gagnon.
Ring by ring, from the outermost to the innermost, the eye indulges in the visual equivalent of a musical arpeggio in which the notes are played in quick succession. This principle was explored by composers such as Arnold Schönberg, the precursor of atonal and experimental music, and his student, Anton Webern, and was later radicalized by Edgard Varèse. In an interview, Varèse spoke about the perpetual gong sound in one of his compositions. Interestingly, Tousignant’s circular paintings Gong 64 and Gong stochastique were produced in 1966, a year after Varèse’s death. Tousignant was a great admirer of Varèse, as evidenced in the title of this piece, which acts as a kind of homage, an adieu replete with echoes and residual magnetism.
At the time, Tousignant was exploring a concept of painting based on a return to primary matter—in other words, painting that is emptied of any superfluous references, a pure object of perception and sensation. He found the ultimate exemplars of this in Piet Mondrian, Varèse, and Barnett Newman. Tousignant explored the infinite possibilities of a form of painting that is “immediately understood,” an autonomous object, possessed of a spatial organization and dynamic internal interaction, that is totally devoid of all natural representation. “With Newman, I found a space of spectacular beauty,” he stated. “It’s exactly what I was trying to do in 1965: to say as much as possible with as few elements as possible.”
Tousignant’s formal vision quickly evolved around a constant geometry that ranged from the most austere rectangle to the most vibrant circular form. This search for equilibrium culminated in a structural exploration of the circle, which became his visual signature in the mid-1960s. In Accélérateurs chromatiques, he demonstrated the inexorable power of this figure, as if it were a magnetic pole in which all retinal activity converged. The delicate rings of carefully considered colour reverberate in a sometimes centripetal, sometimes centrifugal chorus that undulates like “waves of chromatic energy.” Here, Tousignant manages to transcend pictorial space, achieving a kind of optical playground that feeds, rather than resolves, the enigma of pure colour. Within this space, the eye witnesses the blending of light in real time.
In 1965, Tousignant took part in the exhibition The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, and represented Canada at the 8th Bienal de São Paulo. In 1973, the National Gallery of Canada presented a retrospective of his work that also toured across the country. In 1982, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presented Claude Tousignant: Sculptures, and in 1994, the Musée du Québec (now the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec) presented Claude Tousignant: monochromes, 1978–1993. Tousignant is the recipient of the Victor-Martyn-Lynch-Staunton Award and the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas. In 2010, he received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
