Jean St. Pierre; Modern Artist Founded Newspace Gallery

Jean St. Pierre, who abandoned the seminary to pursue a career as an artist, imbuing his oil paintings, wood sculptures and collage portraits with spiritual expressionism, has died.

Robert Mayer, a friend and colleague, said St. Pierre was 44 when he died of liver and kidney complications Friday at Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach.

In addition to his art, St. Pierre will be remembered for founding the Newspace Gallery, first in Fullerton and now on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

Born in Miami Beach, St. Pierre gave up the Franciscan seminary “because he wanted to make things,” Mayer said.

A Times art writer in 1985 described his quest as an exploration of “such philosophical intangibles as the metaphysical structure of the universe and the transcendental nature of the soul.”

That was written in connection with an exhibit of his canvases, oil paintings on wood, and wood sculptures at Ruth Bachofner’s Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard.

Later in his career he concentrated more on sculpture, using such varied materials as wire mesh, stone, concrete, rusted steel and wood in a series of wall and free-standing works.

Paul Schimmel, chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles, called St. Pierre “a significant artist whose blending of poetry, music and painting was reminiscent of the era of the Beat Generation.”

Schimmel--who said that MOCA had recently received from Councilman Joel Wachs one of St. Pierre’s works--said he and the artist had known each other for years when both men lived in Orange County.

“He went beyond his art and became a great influence on a new generation of artists in Orange County when he established Newspace,” Schimmel said.

St. Pierre, who studied at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, is survived by his father, Joseph, two brothers and a sister.