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| Canadian Artists from World War II to the Present: A Survey | ||
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Introduction :: Québec and Ontario: Two Solitudes Reflected in Art :: Abstraction on the Prairies: Regina Five :: Nationalism Reborn, and Pop Art Explored: the 1960s :: Outside of the Mainstream: The Folk Artist in Canada :: People and Places: on Either Coast :: Other Aspects from The 1970s to the Present: Pluralism and Diversity :: Artist-run Centers :: Feminist and post-Feminist Perspectives :: Performance, Installation, Video Art, and Beyond :: Additional Resources for 20th-Century and Contemporary Art in Canada :: HOME
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| Québec and Ontario: Two Solitudes Reflected in Art | ||
| Both in Québec and Ontario, many artists working in the 1940s became enamored of non-representational painting expressions—albeit for different reasons, and with different theoretical justification. Québec In Québec, the most original and far-reaching artists’ group was called Les Automatistes, which means "automatic painters".  The Automatistes, who came to prominence in the late 1940s, were strongly influenced by Surrealism in general and by André Breton in particular. They used non-representational art as a means of striking a blow against what they considered to be an oppressive society. There were a number of significant artists working in this movement, among them Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960), Claude Gauvreau (1925-1971), Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002), the painter and stained-glass artist Marcelle Ferron (1924-2001), and Françoise Sullivan (1925-). Together these artists in 1948 published a manifesto, entiled the Refus Global (Total Refusal) which, in an elevated and literary style, takes on the accumulated weight of French-Canadian cultural and religious traditions, and vows to start again from scratch. It is the most original and most iconoclastic of all Canadian art documents. Text of Refus Global (Total Refusal), 1948 (in French) Paul-Emile Borduas (1905-1960) Borduas himself was an unlikely revolutionary: originally trained as a church painter, with the noted and beloved painter Ozias Leduc (1864-1955), he came to prominence in the 1940s, when he met the group of younger artists who would co-sign the Refus Global with him. He became the leader of the Automatistes. 3 + 3 + 2 1956 (Art Gallery of Ontario) Oil on canvas 129.4 x 84.1 cm Bequest of Charles S. Band, Toronto, 1970 This is painting as confrontation, with its spontaneous application of thick paint and its non-representational subject. As a result of paintings such as this, and for his notoriety gained as a result of publishing the Refus Global, Borduas lost his job. He this might be looked on as the only art martyr in Canadian art. In contrast, some of the other co-signatories of the Refus Global, notably Riopelle, went on to enjoy significant international success; their early iconoclasm did little to hurt their careers. Jean-Paul Lemieux (1904-1990) Traditionalist idioms never totally disappeared in Canadian art, as some artists, particularly in Québec, continued to explore their historical roots in their cultures. Lemieux painted what he knew—the persistent influence of the Roman Catholic church; the challenging climate of his native province; and the anachronistic costumes and habits of Quebeckers. But instead of being angered by these vestigial traditions, as Borduas was, Lemieux celebrated them, with a gentle, introspective, and wry spirit. Lazare 1941 (Art Gallery of Ontario) Oil on masonite 101.0 x 83.5 cm Purchase, 1941 The somewhat dreamlike imagery here, with an impossible cutaway view of a church and simultaneous narrative, links Lemieux with older, pre-Renaissance manuscript traditions. Lemieux thus asserts his independence from the popular 20th-century movements of the period. Ontario Meanwhile, a school in Toronto developed with strong affinities with American post-painterly abstraction. Painters Eleven, a group founded with a strongly New York orientation, gave Torontonians something to talk about. The eleven painters in the group made a significant impact on Canadian painting of the period. J.W.G. Macdonald (1897-1960) MacDonald was a pioneer abstractionist who had explored non-representational painting in the 1930s. It was not until the 1950s, when he was teaching at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, and he ran into a group of younger students who were enthusiastic about non-representational painting, that he came fully into his own. Fleeting Breath 1959 (Art Gallery of Ontario) Oil and lucite 44 on canvas 122.2 x 149.2 cm Canada Council Joint Purchase Award, 1959 This painting, painted very late in Macdonald’s life, shows the lyrical abstraction for which he was famous. |
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Introduction :: Québec and Ontario: Two Solitudes Reflected in Art :: Abstraction on the Prairies: Regina Five :: Nationalism Reborn, and Pop Art Explored: the 1960s :: Outside of the Mainstream: The Folk Artist in Canada :: People and Places: on Either Coast :: Other Aspects from The 1970s to the Present: Pluralism and Diversity :: Artist-run Centers :: Feminist and post-Feminist Perspectives :: Performance, Installation, Video Art, and Beyond :: Additional Resources for 20th-Century and Contemporary Art in Canada :: HOME
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