About | Marcelin Cardinal Fine Art Paintings

Marcelin Cardinal

Marcelin (a.k.a. Marcel) Cardinal was born in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan on April 26, 1920. His father was a contractor who worked on many public buildings in western Canada. With the Depression, funds for public construction dried up and the family moved north to Makwa in 1931. There was no school in Makwa and wouldn’t be for two years so young Marcelin was left to fill his days with his constant companions; his dog, a pony, and a rifle. He thrived in the rugged environment of northern Saskatchewan with its solitude, vast horizons, forests, and long winters. Here he began to develop his sense for space and colour.

By 1938, Marcelin had completed primary school and just two years of high school when he left home to work several odd jobs. With the coming of the second World War, Marcelin was recruited into the Canadian Army. Marcelin’s early life served him well in the army as he was extremely fit, a skilled marksman and, by his own nature, highly organized. In basic training, Marcelin quickly realized that if he wanted a hot shower after field exercises, he would have to complete the circuits ahead of the other recruits which he did. This brought him to the attention of his trainers. Despite his limited formal education, Marcelin was given a battery of intelligence and psychological tests on which he scored very highly and was selected for officer training where he excelled.

Trained as a commando, he was seconded to the British Army to train their commando recruits. By war’s end, Marcelin held the rank of captain. In 1941, while on leave, he visited the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, and the experience was transformational. It was at that point that Marcelin decided he would pursue life as an artist after the war. As an artist, he was self-taught and in 1947 had his first solo exhibition at the restaurant “La Maisonette” in Montréal.

In 1950, after first spending six months in San Francisco and the winter in Paris, Marcelin headed to the Côte d’Azur where he experienced a revelation. While skin diving, Marcelin realized that space was not an empty void but was filled with life and differing qualities of light, colour, and textures. This realization would become central to his work.

He established himself in Le Cannet where he had contact with Francis Picabia, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. In the mid-1950s, he set up a second base in New York City close to the Cedar Tavern where he met other abstract artists including Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko. From 1951, Marcelin relied only on his art for income. Marcelin would complete his works in Le Cannet and travel by ship to New York to sell them. Between 1951 and 1970, he made 30 trans-Atlantic crossings by ship. In 1965, Marcelin met and married Roseline Bernaud, who was from Gras, and they would be inseparable for the rest of his life. In 1970, Roseline and Marcelin moved to live permanently in Montréal.

Over the years, Marcelin had many solo exhibitions of his work in galleries and museums in New York, Chicago, London, Montréal and Toronto and collective exhibitions in galleries in these and other cities. Despite continued productivity well into his 90’s, Marcelin had his last public exhibition in 1990. Marcelin died, in Montréal, on October 25, 2019, with his beloved Roseline at his side.