The Artistic Evolution of Fernand Toupin Fernand Toupin was a Québécois abstract painter born in Montreal, Canada. As a first-generation member of the avant-garde movement known as Les Plasticiens, his early work featured shaped paintings that drew upon the tradition of geometric abstraction. In 1959, his approach shifted toward a more lyrical, though abstract, way of painting, before returning to geometric abstraction during the fina…