Pierre Coupey: Cutting out the Tongue

Pierre Coupey, founding editor of The Capilano Review and co-founder of The Georgia Straight has been a practicing writer, printmaker and painter since the early 1960s. In the mid-1970s he made the pivotal decision to focus his energies primarily on visual art, that is, the “wordless” activity of painting. Although the influence and importance of literature in Coupey’s life and work cannot be denied, this exhibition will look at Coupey’s trajectory as a painter over the last four decades, and on the contradictions and tensions deeply embedded in his abstract canvases and his decision to metaphorically obey Matisse’s impossible admonition to “cut out the tongue” and paint. The two exhibitions run concurrently at the West Vancouver Museum in West Vancouver and the Art Gallery at Evergreen in Coquitlam.

Please visit the Shop for a copy of the Museum's publication of Pierre Coupey's works.