Members, affiliates, fellows, and administrators of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art are deeply saddened by the loss of its Founding Director and Distinguished Research Fellow François-Marc Gagnon.
After an astonishingly rich and productive life in art history, François-Marc Gagnon died on 28 March 2019, surrounded by his family. We offer our deepest condolences to his wife Pnina Gagnon, his daughter Iris Amizlev and his two sons Lee-Yarden and Yakir Gagnon.
A pillar of Canadian art history, an adventurous and penetrating scholar, an inspiring teacher and public lecturer, François-Marc Gagnon was an indomitable spirit, a force for the importance of visual art and its understanding. The leading expert on the work and life of Paul-Émile Borduas – the pioneering author of the Borduas catalogue raisonné – François-Marc Gagnon threw his net much wider into Quebec and Canadian art, focusing his curiosity, rigour, empathy, and wit on a remarkable range of topics, including natural history – The Codex Canadensis – and historiography – the Writings of Louis Nicolas.