In the House of Paul-Émile Borduas

Introduction
A Place for Art, A Place to Live
A Cherished Mountain
A Global Refusal
Exploring Borduas' Art
The River of Time
Looking Back

Borduas’ Legacy

Today, Borduas, the Automatists and above all the Refus global manifesto represent the first tremors of the Quiet Revolution that transformed Québec in the 1960s. Borduas has become an almost legendary or mythical figure – a standard-bearer for these social changes.

Borduas fits quite perfectly with the image of the misunderstood artist, forsaken both in life and death. His posthumous renown thus contrasts somewhat with the realities of his life and the solitude in which he spent his last years. Art historians have recuperated these facts and gradually turned the man into an icon of Québec art. This status is reinforced by the quality and perspicacity of his pictorial and intellectual work, as well as by the reception that his art now enjoys. It is nonetheless regrettable that Borduas never knew this recognition, which he wished for all his life.

The recognition of Borduas’ work and its influence has been marked by an unforeseeable reversal of fortune. In the fall of 1930, Borduas applied to the Québec government for a grant that would enable him to return to France to advance his training and complete the practicum he had undertaken at the end of 1928. To this end, he put together an impressive portfolio with numerous letters of recommendation and favourable opinions to strengthen his position as a candidate. However, he did not obtain the grant and had to remain in Québec. In 1977, the government of Québec established the Paul-Émile-Borduas prize, which is awarded to a person for his or her work as a whole in the fields of visual arts, arts and crafts, architecture or design. The recognition that Borduas had so hoped for in his lifetime was finally bestowed.
Today, the figure of Borduas embodies rectitude, tenacity and courage – rectitude for never bowing to social, artistic or even personal pressures and for maintaing his positions with integrity; tenacity for persisting and never losing sight of the way he had chosen despite the ups and downs of life; and courage for leaving everything behind to be true to what he was and hold onto what he believed in. Despite the obstacles, he had the courage to continue on his path.

Borduas remains closely associated with the Quiet Revolution. By launching the Refus global manifesto, Borduas and the Automatists – perhaps prematurely – called for what Québec society would openly claim in the 1960s, that is, liberation from the clergy’s control and an affirmation of the secular state.

The social changes that occurred in the following decades did not necessarily correspond entirely to the utopia dreamed of in the manifesto, but they nonetheless testify to a desire for liberty.

Header image: Borduas' final resting place in St-Hilaire.

Plaque found at the 19, rue Rousselet in Paris.
« Here lived Paul-Émile Borduas, Québec artist, from 1955 until his death on February 22 1960. »