Duncan de Kergommeaux, Burnt Island, 2008, oil on linen, Collection of Museum London, Gift of the artist, 2011
1927 - 2024
Museum London remembers visionary Canadian artist, Duncan de Kergommeaux, who passed away last month.
Born in 1927, de Kergommeaux’s career as an artist spanned eight decades. He began his career studying at the Banff School of Fine Arts, later working under the Czech artist Jan Zach in Victoria, BC. In 1953, he moved to Ontario, where he held his first ever solo exhibition and went on to advise on the development of Carleton University’s permanent art collection. While maintaining his growing studio practice in Ottawa, de Kergommeaux founded the Blue Barn Gallery and Lofthouse Galleries to introduce the broader community to emerging practices in contemporary art. By 1970, he made the move to London, where he would lead and grow the studio art program at Western University.
Speaking to the meaning of his work, de Kergommeaux once offered in an interview, “I want my paintings to be a clear extension of my hand and mind with no socially-mediated constructs in between” (These Are the Marks I Make, 2011). Like poetry, his paintings—even when featuring representational elements—seek to imagine new worlds rather than merely describing our existing one.
Over his remarkable career, de Kergommeaux’s work has been featured in over 50 solo exhibitions and countless group exhibitions. At Museum London, three major surveys of his work were organized in 1986, 1995, and most recently in 2010 (in partnership with the Ottawa Art Gallery). His works are held in numerous public and private collections internationally.
Museum London is fortunate to hold 26 paintings by de Kergommeaux in its care. His 2008 work, Burnt Island, is currently on view in Taking the Long View: The Museum London Art Collection, through June 1, 2025.