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

Testimonies

First meeting with Borduas
Françoise Sullivan
Video clip
Duration: 3 minutes 40 seconds
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Borduas and his communication skills
Fernand Leduc
Video clip
Duration: 1 minute 28 seconds
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Header image: Fernand Leduc and Françoise Sullivan. Photo Luc Bouvrette.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

First meeting with Borduas
Françoise Sullivan


The first time I met Borduas was in November 1941. Pierre Gauvreau had taken part in a student exhibition and Borduas had been so pleasantly surprised by his work that he wanted to meet Pierre. So he called him up, and Pierre then asked if he could bring along some friends who would surely be interested in meeting him. So we arrived on a fine Tuesday evening at his studio on rue Mentana and the meeting was extraordinary. The studio was entirely white with only a chair, an easel, and some paintings propped against the wall. Borduas presented them to us while we sat on the floor. And he talked about painting and his approach. And he talked about Surrealism – André Breton and Pierre Mabille for example – and about the book on civilizations Pierre Mabille had written. And he talked until late in the night about civilizations and how ours was coming to an end. And we were truly moved by the clear and profound – and also very beautiful and emotional – way he expressed himself. Because basically we were unestablished young students. So we walked out of his studio around three or four o’clock in the morning, completely in awe, moved, saying: “But dear God, this cannot stop, he is the teacher we should have had.” And he invited us to return in two weeks. There was already a group of students from Collège Brébeuf who would go to his place on Tuesday evenings with Père François Hertel. Some of them would present their drawings and Borduas would critique them in front of us. So we went to those meetings. And I can tell you that this was the beginning of the Automatists.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Borduas and his communication skills
Fernand Leduc

Borduas really liked to be surrounded by people and to communicate. He had great communication skills and sort of had an answer to any question. Anyway, he had his own answers. If we were discussing social interactions, or interactions within a couple, because we talked about all these issues, he answered from his own experience. But he was able to answer and inform us in a precise and even exciting manner. Because in addition to his words, his eyes were deep and fascinating. So, in his presence we felt like we wanted to plunge into his eyes. This is strange, but his way of communicating was also a form of seduction. He liked to charm his audience.

Françoise Sullivan

Françoise SULLIVAN (1925- )
Multidisciplinary artist, she will transit throughout her career from painting to dance, sculpture (when she had children), to eventually come back to painting. It's in greater part with her that modern dance made its entrance in Quebec. She holds a honorific doctorate from the Université du Québec à Montréal.



Fernand Leduc Fernand LEDUC (1916-2014)
Artist who is, as Borduas, a prolific writer. For the past forty years, he has worked on "microchromies", mysterious monochromatic paintings. From blue to green and transiting through grey and yellow, he pursued his explorations in Quebec, France and Italy.