Jean McEwen is an internationally renowned Canadian artist. As one of the pioneers of the North American modernist art movement, he has explored non-figurative colour and space relationships through his painting for more than forty years.

He was born December 14, 1923 in Montreal, Quebec and passed away there in 1999. His mother was French Canadian, his father of Scottish decent. As a child Jean McEwen was intrigued by painting and the qualities of colour, but he did not receive any formal training in art. While enrolled in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Montreal, he became interested in poetry and was strongly influenced by a film, "The Moon and Sixpence", a Somerset Maugham account of the life of artist Paul Gauguin. What the young McEwen realized, was that he did not have to be a full time artist to be successful. Following this "revelation", as he called it, the artist immediately bought books on the work of Picasso, Matisse and Braque, acquired oil paints and brushes and began leaning about art as he continued his studies in pharmacy.

Much to the young McEwen's surprise, he had some of his early paintings accepted in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Annual Spring Exhibitions in 1949 and 1950. He also received favorable reviews from Quebec artist Paul-Emile Borduas, who encouraged him to travel to Paris to further his understanding of modem art and painting.

Leaving his pharmacist work behind, he spent three years in Paris and formed associations with Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle and American artist, Sam Francis. The early influences of Borduas, Riopelle and Francis had a lasting effect on the future work of McEwen and helped solidify his style and beliefs as a modernist.

For the next thirty years, Jean McEwen steadfastly explored abstract colour field painting despite mainstream shifts away from abstraction in the seventies and eighties. Along with fellow Quebec artists Guido Molinari, Yves Gaucher and others, they have maintained non-figurative abstraction as an important force in Canadian art.

During his long career, Jean McEwen has exhibited regularly and has had his work selected for many private and public collections throughout Canada and in the United States. These include the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Museum of Modem Art in New York. He has also received many honours and awards including a 1963 honourary mention as Canada's representative to the Sao Paulo International Biennial in Brazil.