Description |
AUTO, CAS, QMG, RCA [1905-1960]
No. 3; 1954
watercolour on paper
14 x 18 in. (35.6 x 45.7 cm)
Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB; Private collection (friend of the artist), New York, NY
Note: Letter of authentication verso from Francois-Marc Gagnon of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
Paul-Emile Borduas is one of the most important and influential figures in Canadian contemporary art. Borduas, through force of intellect and personality, and strength of principals succeeded in revolutionizing painting in Quebec and Canada. Borduas was the leader of the Groupe Automatiste, a Surrealist-inspired, non-figurative school of art guided by free expression, impulse and spontaneity. Borduas was a respected teacher, influencing artists such as Jean-Paul Riopelle. He was the chief author of the Refus Global manifesto, a document signed by 16 of Quebec's leading artists and intellectuals of the time. The Refus caused an uproar in the press and Quebec society, criticized for being anti-establishment, anti-religious, even anarchistic. Though in retrospect, few copies were sold, and the publication was primarily a collection of plays and essays intended to accompany an Automatiste exhibition.
Borduas began his artistic studies under Ozias Leduc, also earning a degree at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal. He moved to Paris in 1928 for further studies, returning to Montreal several years later and accepting a teaching post at the Ecole des Meubles where he remained until his dismissal in 1948 (in response to the publication of the Refus). Borduas, who had struggled to find financial success as an artist, was now without employment, ostracized, and soon abandoned by his family. He found the next few years difficult. Also struggling with health issues, he found it physically difficult to paint.
It is at this low point that he turned to watercolours and discovered a new form of expression, and freedom. With the assistance of a supportive arts patron/agent, he was able to sell about 150 works, allowing Borduas the means to go to the United States, eventually securing a studio in New York in 1953. These years were critical in the development of Borduas' art and career. He met many of the leading figures in American Abstract Expressionism, and was particularly impressed by the work of Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, or Mark Rothko, who he felt were going much further than the Automatistes had. Borduas continued to produce watercolours and began to use a palette knife to apply oil to his canvases. His first New York Exhibit in 1954 was received favourably, and was followed by several additional exhibitions during the 1950s. Borduas moved to Paris in 1955, where he died five years later, homesick for Canada, still seeking artistic evolution, and still struggling to find commercial success.
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