Jean-Paul Mousseau was an interdisciplinary artist who was the youngest member of the group of Québécois painters associated with the Automatist movement. He was born in Montreal in 1927, and being precocious, he started studying painting at the age of 13 at Collège Notre-Dame under artist Frère Jérôme Paradis from 1940 to 1945. He pursued his studies the following year at the École du Meuble with Paul-Émile Borduas, who was a professor there. While at the École, Mousseau met Jean Paul Riopelle and Marcel Barbeau, and eventually all the other artists who would form the Automatist group. In 1946, he participated in the the first Automatist exhibition, and in 1948, he added his signature to the Refus global manifesto. This historical document was launched in August of that year at the Librairie Tranquille upon Mousseau’s suggestion, as he worked there at the time.

In 1956, he became a member of the Association des artistes non-figuratifs de Montréal, along with Pierre Gauvreau, Riopelle, Françoise Sullivan and Fernand Leduc. Although his affiliation with the Automatist group allowed him to blossom artistically and expand his creative horizons, he eventually moved away from their philosophy and practices. He started to work in set design and costume for theatre productions, and produced sculpture, jewelry, painted textiles, posters and stained glass, which forced him to work with budget and time constraints. While the Automatists favoured the unrestrained creative act, Mousseau found that planning ahead and working with restrictions proved to be creatively challenging. In 1957, Mousseau started working with coloured resin and fibreglass, which resulted in a series of colourful lamps in a variety of organic shapes. In 1959, he abandoned painting in favour of public art. Growing increasingly concerned with the democratization of art by integrating it into public spaces, Mousseau started collaborating with architects and ceramicist and painter Claude Vermette to create a number of important public art projects. Some of his most iconic works include murals for the Hydro-Québec headquarters, and the Peel, Viau, Honoré-Beaugrand and Square-Victoria metro stations in Montreal. During the 1960s, he also created thematic discotheque environments, which were named “mousseauthèques.”
He taught at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal from 1961 to 1964 and at Université Laval in Quebec City in 1968. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1977. His works can be found in important private and museum collections across Canada.