Louis Parent, Galerie 67, Quebec City
Galerie Lacerte, Quebec City (Inventory No. 7754)
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature
Roald Nasgaard and Ray Ellenwood, “Automatiste Revolution: Montreal, 1941-1960”, Toronto, 2009, page 43
A member of the Automatistes, Marcelle Ferron was counselled by Paul-Émile Borduas to abandon narrative and landscape painting in favour of more radical abstraction. At the time the artist met Borduas in 1946, through to 1953, Ferron favoured a “sgraffito” technique where she would apply multiple layers of pigment and scrape away between applications with a palette knife. Roald Nasgaard argues that “her scrapes swoop and intertwine, evoking the effect of wind-blown grasses or tangled seaweed.” The bursting, expressive strokes of layered colour, ranging from thin veils to opaque strokes of paint creates depth, movement and invigorating complexity within the artwork.
“Sans titre” is composed of thin layers of green, blue and grey pigments, creating a wash that has been scraped and smudged in order to form a spontaneous and automatist, abstract image. This intimate oil on card painting was completed in 1947, the year Ferron was invited by Borduas to participate in her first group exhibition, the “64th Annual Spring Exhibition”, organized by the Art Association of Montreal. She also took part in the World Youth Festival in Prague in the same year.
