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Alex Janvier
Alexan Simeon Janvier CM AOE RCA (/ˈdʒænvɪər/; February 28, 1935 – July 10, 2024) was a First Nations painter in Canada. A member of the Indian Group of Seven, he helped pioneer contemporary Aboriginal art in Canada.
Alex Janvier was born on Le Goff Reserve, Cold Lake First Nations, northern Alberta, on February 28, 1935 of Dene Suline and Saulteaux descent. At the age of eight, he was sent to the Blue Quills Indian residential school near St. Paul, Alberta, where the principal recognized his innate artistic talent and encouraged him in his art.
Janvier received formal art training from the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary (now the Alberta University of the Arts) where he encountered the influence of European modernists. Janvier's practice also drew from the rich cultural and spiritual traditions of the Dene in northern Alberta. He graduated with honours in 1960. He was one of the first Canadian First Nations artists to train in a professional art school.
Immediately after graduation, Janvier took up an opportunity to instruct art at the University of Alberta. In 1966, the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs commissioned him to produce 80 paintings. He helped bring together a group of artists for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, among them Norval Morrisseau and Bill Reid. Janvier ran Janvier Gallery in Cold Lake, Alberta, with his family.
In 2016, a retrospective exhibition of his work opened at the National Gallery of Canada. Also, in 2016 Janvier's large mosaic Tsą tsą ke kʼe (Iron Foot Place) was installed at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Janvier died on July 10, 2024, at the age of 89.
Janvier, the 'first Canadian native modernist,' created a unique style of modernist abstraction, his own "visual language," informed by the rich cultural and spiritual traditions and heritage of the Dene in northern Alberta. His abstract style is particularly suited to large-scale works. He made magic arts[clarification needed] and three-dimensional works. Two of his stylistic influences among Western artists were Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky while, among Native traditions, he was particularly inspired by the abstract patterns of traditional hide-painting, beadwork and quillwork.
Janvier signed his paintings with his treaty number from 1966 to 1977 to protest government policies against Aboriginal people. He also made references to treaty language in the "ironic and allusive" titles of his art, such as "Sun Shines, Grass Grows, Rivers Flow", grounding his abstract art in political conflicts.
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Alex Janvier
Alexan Simeon Janvier CM AOE RCA (/ˈdʒænvɪər/; February 28, 1935 – July 10, 2024) was a First Nations painter in Canada. A member of the Indian Group of Seven, he helped pioneer contemporary Aboriginal art in Canada.
Alex Janvier was born on Le Goff Reserve, Cold Lake First Nations, northern Alberta, on February 28, 1935 of Dene Suline and Saulteaux descent. At the age of eight, he was sent to the Blue Quills Indian residential school near St. Paul, Alberta, where the principal recognized his innate artistic talent and encouraged him in his art.
Janvier received formal art training from the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary (now the Alberta University of the Arts) where he encountered the influence of European modernists. Janvier's practice also drew from the rich cultural and spiritual traditions of the Dene in northern Alberta. He graduated with honours in 1960. He was one of the first Canadian First Nations artists to train in a professional art school.
Immediately after graduation, Janvier took up an opportunity to instruct art at the University of Alberta. In 1966, the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs commissioned him to produce 80 paintings. He helped bring together a group of artists for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, among them Norval Morrisseau and Bill Reid. Janvier ran Janvier Gallery in Cold Lake, Alberta, with his family.
In 2016, a retrospective exhibition of his work opened at the National Gallery of Canada. Also, in 2016 Janvier's large mosaic Tsą tsą ke kʼe (Iron Foot Place) was installed at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Janvier died on July 10, 2024, at the age of 89.
Janvier, the 'first Canadian native modernist,' created a unique style of modernist abstraction, his own "visual language," informed by the rich cultural and spiritual traditions and heritage of the Dene in northern Alberta. His abstract style is particularly suited to large-scale works. He made magic arts[clarification needed] and three-dimensional works. Two of his stylistic influences among Western artists were Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky while, among Native traditions, he was particularly inspired by the abstract patterns of traditional hide-painting, beadwork and quillwork.
Janvier signed his paintings with his treaty number from 1966 to 1977 to protest government policies against Aboriginal people. He also made references to treaty language in the "ironic and allusive" titles of his art, such as "Sun Shines, Grass Grows, Rivers Flow", grounding his abstract art in political conflicts.