Fernand Toupin RCA (1930, Montreal–2009 Terrebonne) was a Québécois abstract painter best known as a first-generation member of the avant-garde movement known as Les Plasticiens.
[2] Like Jean-Paul Mousseau, Toupin created works which lay outside the standard boundaries of art such as his stage sets for ballets.
Beginning with his first early-career retrospectives in 1967 and 1972 organized by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, Toupin's work was the subject of several gallery and museum exhibitions, both in Canada and abroad.
1954 Petit salon d’été, Librairie-galerie Tranquille, Montréal 1955 Les Plasticiens, L'Échourie, Montréal 1956 Toupin and Belzile, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gallery XII 1956 Jeune sculpture, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montréal 1956 Les moins de trente ans, Ile Sainte-Hélène, Montréal 1956 Duo Exhibition, Canada/United States, Parma Gallery, New York 1958 Salon de la jeune peinture, École des beaux-arts de Montréal (winner of first prize) 1958 Les lauréats du Salon de la jeune peinture 1958, Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal 1959 Art abstrait, École des beaux-arts de Montréal 1962 Two Worlds Festival, Spoleto, Italy 1966 Canadian Art, travelling exhibit across Canada from the Sayde and Samuel Bronfman collection 1970 Québec Pavillon, Osaka World Expo, Japan 1972 Fourth International Paintings Festival, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (winner of national prize for Canada) 1973 Galerie Raymonde Cazenave, Paris 1975 Canadian canvas, travelling exhibit of large paintings to nine Canadian museums 1976 Randall Galleries, New York 1977 Jauran et les premiers plasticiens, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1980 Art Expo, International Art Exposition, New York Coliseum, New York 1980 La collection permanente du Musée, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1980 Dix ans de propositions géométriques, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1980 Randall Galleries, New York 1984 Arte Universal A Través De Los Tiempos, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 1987 Accents de la collection Lavalin, Galerie Lavalin, Montréal 1989 Avant-garde des années ’50 et ’60, Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montréal 1991 Tokyo Central Museum, Japan 1992 La collection: tableau inaugural, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 1992 Les Plasticiens, National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Winnipeg Art Gallery 2005 Les Plasticiens, Galerie Simon Blais, Montréal 2008 Cape Breton University Art Gallery, Sydney, Nova Scotia 2011 Quiet Mutinies : Art in Québec in the 1950s, The Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary, Alberta 2012 La question de l’abstraction, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal 2013 Les Plasticiens et les années 1950 et 1960, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec 2013 The Plasticiens and Beyond: Montreal 1955-1970, Varley Art Gallery, Markham, Ontario 2014 Mid-Century Modern, Museum London, London, Ontario 2014 Dialogues formels, Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec 2015 Dialogues de l’œil, Permanent Collection of the City of Gatineau 2016 Abstracta Delecta: The Quebec Painters, Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke Musée d’art de Joliette Musée Laurier Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-du-Loup Place des arts, Montréal University of Montreal City of Montreal (Saint-Laurent district) City of Brossard City of Gatineau Selection Reader`s Digest Loto-Québec Banque Nationale du Canada University of Lethbridge, Alberta Simon Fraser University, Vancouver University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia Museum London, London, Ontario Statische Kunstgalerie, Bochum, Germany Centre national d'art contemporain, Paris Toupin was a founding member of the Association of Non-Figurative Artists of Montreal (1956).