Acquired directly from the Artist by Gérard Lortie, Montreal
Fred S. Mendel, Saskatchewan
Gift to Miriam Shields, Saskatchewan
By descent to a Private Collection, Calgary
Heffel Fine Art, auction, Vancouver, 7 May 2012, lot 10
Private Collection, Calgary
Exhibited
“Dernière exposition...des derniers tableaux”, Saint–Hilaire Studio, 26–27 April 1952, no. 10
“Exposition de tableaux et d’encres”, Foyer de l’art et du livre, Ottawa, 10–20 October 1952, no. 9
Literature
François–Marc Gagnon, “Paul-Émile Borduas: Life & Work” [online publication], Art Canada Institute, Toronto, 2014, page 56
Paul–Émile Borduas is best–known for his influence on avant– garde movements throughout Canada. Born in 1905 in Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Borduas later went on to study art in Montreal and Paris. In 1938 he discovered Surrealism and associated writings by André Breton. Borduas was then inspired to paint in a similar style as the European Surrealists––without a preconceived idea and automatic, in a sense. While teaching at the École du meuble, Borduas met similarly minded young Quebec–based artists, and together they formed a group that became known as the Automatistes. The group discussed socio–political ideas and participated in public forums, debating modern painting and non–representational art. In 1948, the Automatistes decided that they should accompany their next exhibition with a manifesto. Borduas wrote the main text of the manifesto, “Refus global”, which attacked the parochialism (”esprit de clocher”, as it was called) in Quebec, the stifling dominance of Catholicism, and the narrow nationalism of the provincial government under Premier Maurice Duplessis. The manifesto was shocking and highly controversial, and led to his immediate suspension from the École du meuble.
Borduas’ work from 1951 and 1952, following the aftermath of the publication of “Refus Global”, and just prior to moving to New York City, reveals a shift away from Automatism to a more personal form of Abstract Expressionism. The distinction between object and ground becomes blurred, and a central focal point disappears in favour of a flattened, ‘all–over’ pictorial surface. Art historian François–Marc Gagnon remarks on the developments during these important years of Borduas’ career, writing that ‘the objects’ in his Automatiste paintings become fragmented spots, or marks, applied with a palette knife, and tend to spread across the entire picture surface. By replacing the brush with the knife to paint the ground, he gives the work a new solidity, and above all, he brings the objects closer to the pictorial surface. The fusion of object and ground is imminent.” This new direction is visible in Borduas’ oil painting “La nuit se précise”, where the figure/ ground distinction has been eliminated, with only larger palette knife strokes in the centre layered above smaller strokes around the edges of the canvas. The multicoloured “automatic” brushstrokes blend into one another to form an intertwined, web–like image, rather than his previous work of distinct shapes detached from a clear background. Borduas would then proceed into further experimentation of this new method in New York only a year later, inspired by Jackson Pollock’s ‘drip’ technique.
