First Name: Clemence

Last Name: Wescoupe

Full Name: Clemence Wescoupe

Alternative Names: “Ozaa-Bines” which means “Brown Thunderbird”

Date of birth: 1951

Place of birth: Long Plain First Nation Reserve, Manitoba, Canada

Date of death: December 23, 2018

Place of death: Portage la Prairie General Hospital, Manitoba, Canada

Community / Heritage: Saulteaux

Sex: Male

Art Media: Silkscreen, acrylics, oils, screenprints, watercolours, gouache, serigraphs, lithographs.

Bio:

Clemence Wescoupe was a prominent Canadian painter and printmaker. He was born at the Long Plain Reserve in Manitoba in 1951 of Saulteaux background.  His native name was “Ozaa-Bines”, which means “Brown Thunderbird”.

Wescoupe was largely self-taught and began to paint in 1971. He started printmaking after he was inspired by his friends, a group of artists in the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation, better known as the "Indian Group of Seven". Wescoupe used oils, acrylics, watercolours, gouache to create his work, and belongs to the Woodland School of Art.

In the mid-70s, Wescoupe’s first silkscreen prints were published by Robert Checkwitch of Great Grasslands Graphics. “Rainbirds”, made in 1977, was one of the most popular and successful Woodland prints ever created.

Wescoupe died at 67 at the Portage la Prairie General Hospital. 

His works have been exhibited across Canada and Europe, and are part of several public and private collections, including The Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Exhibitions

• 2003: The Wah-sa Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• 2013: “Another View of American Indian Fine Art”. The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston, Illinois, United States
• 2016: “Post No Bills” at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada
• 2017: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada
• Nicholas Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Gallery Phillip, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Frankfurt, Germany
• The University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Collections

• The Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
• Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• The Market Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Articles

• https://norvalmorrisseau.blogspot.com/2019/01/in-memoriam-clemence-wescoupe-1951-2018.htm
• https://www.wag.ca/mobile/visit/shop/indigenous-art/paintings/clemence-wescoupe