In the House of Paul-Émile Borduas
The River of Time
A Global Refusal
Paul-Émile Borduas, The Winged Courier of the Cliff, or 5.47, 1947,
oil on canvas.
Collection of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
Photo : Richard-Max Tremblay
© Paul-Émile Borduas Estate / SODRAC (2013)
A few years after he began to teach, Borduas’ approach to painting began to be influenced by Fauvism and French Surrealism, particularly as expressed in the writings of André Breton. Borduas was all the more open to this influence since, as a children’s art teacher, he had already discovered how spontaneous and free painting could be. Between 1942 and 1952, Borduas painting underwent a transformation and became non-figurative. His plastic explorations led to truly innovative forms, filled with small deft touches applied with a palette knife. Poetic atmospheres gave free rein to the subconscious and called to mind Breton’s automatic writing.
Classic academic training was antithetical to Borduas. The production of several artists of his generation was antithetical to him, as were the conditions under which the Québécois lived and the restrictions imposed by the educational system, politics and religious institutions. These factors prevented him from giving free rein to his conception of an artistic production and a society without boundaries and obligations. As his dissatisfaction grew, Borduas found the repressive atmosphere of Québec society intolerable. In the period leading up to the publication of Refus global, Borduas therefore began to break with artistic organizations, collaborators and even certain friends.
Refus global and its consequences
Françoise Sullivan
Video clip
Duration: 4 minutes 44 seconds
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When the manifesto came out in August 1948, it represented the most dramatic of these ruptures, which were to mark the final years of his life. In the immediate backlash to the publication of Refus global, Borduas lost his job at the École du meuble that very September. This meant that he no longer had the financial resources to support his family. The years that followed were very difficult, both financially and psychologically. Nevertheless, he devoted himself entirely to his art. He participated in numerous exhibitions and events in which he could sell his paintings, and his work began to gain recognition from his peers. However, when he and his wife separated in 1951, he was obliged to rent his Saint-Hilaire house and rethink his future. He decided to leave for the United States in the spring of 1953. He at first stayed in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but soon went to New York, which had become the new world capital of art since the end of the Second World War.
The publication Refus global also marked the peak of the Automatist group’s activities, since their cohesion was shaken in the aftermath of the manifesto’s publication. Many of them simply left Québec to live someplace where they felt less stigmatized. As their personal positions evolved and changed, a certain amount dissension appeared. The loss of his teaching position and the distance separating him from several members of the group had an isolating effect on Borduas. Nonetheless, he persisted and continued to be totally engaged in his art, exploring ever further the limits of his Automatist approach.
Header image: Detail of the Refus global manifesto.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Refus global and its consequences
Françoise Sullivan
Seven years, that’s a magic number, from 1941 to 1948. There was the Refus global. This period culminated with the Refus global, a text resulting from our conversations. Borduas was glad to have this interaction with young people and the ideas were developed within our group. The text was considered by all of us as necessary, but also as dangerous. It represented a risk and Borduas, who was the most vulnerable of us, was very aware of this and accepted it. His text, which was truly beautiful and moving, was not well received. Society was unable to accept it, and even many of his friends among Montréal intellectuals could not accept it because of the rebellious tone and religious aspects which were difficult to deal with at the time. So he became very isolated, you know, people his age... He was losing all his friends, except a few like Monsieur Lortie, for example, who always remained loyal. We know he had lost, for many weeks, there were articles in the papers, many by Claude Gauvreau, which defended him. But there were also terrible articles being written by those in power. And he lost his job. It was very difficult for him, he had a family. And then he became sick, very sick. But he persevered... It was truly disastrous for his private life, but he carried on nonetheless. After a few years he decided to go New York where he produced exceptional work and was represented by a major gallery, Martha Jackson I believe. And his mistake was perhaps to move to France which he thought was the world centre for painting. But it was now New York, which he left all the same. In Paris, he was very much alone, except for a few Canadian friends. So his life is somewhat like a tragedy, it’s a life... we consider him a bit like a saint. Truly an extraordinary character...
A passage from the text Commentaires sur des mots courants (excerpts):
«Automatism: One means of studying the dynamics of thought proposed by André Breton. Three methods of automatism should be distinguished: mechanical, psychic and surrational.
Mechanical Automatism: Produced by strictly physical means such as folding a painted surface, scratching, rubbing, dripping, smudging with smoke, gravitation, rotation, etc. Objects made in this way show universal plastic qualities (the same physical laws control the materials) but reveal little about the personality of the author. On the other hand, they make excellent paranoiac screens.
Psychic Automatism: In literature: writing with no control of the thought processes. During states of particular sensitivity, has permitted the incredible prophecies of modern times: Surrealism. Has contributed greatly to a forward leap in understanding of the creative process.
In painting: mainly based on memory. Dream memory: Dali: remembrance of mild hallucinations: Tanguy, Dali; remembrance of all kinds of chance events: Duchamp, etc. Because memory is involved, interest focuses more on the subject treated (idea, analogy, image, unexpected association of objects, mental connections) than on the real subject (the plastic object, appropriate to the sensual properties of the material used).
Surrational Automatism:
Unpremeditated writing in plastic matter. One shape calls up another until a feeling of unity is achieved, or a feeling that to go further without destruction is impossible. During the process, no attention is paid to content. This freedom is justified by the conviction that content is inevitably linked to form: Lautréamont.
Complete moral independence with regard to the object produced. It is left intact, reworked in places or destroyed according to the feeling it arouses (partial reworking is almost impossible). Attempt to arrive at a conscious plastic awareness while the writing is going on (perhaps more exactly 'a state of alertness' — Robert Elie). A desire to understand the content once the object is finished. Hoped for: a sharpened awareness of the psychological content of any form, of the human universe as it is made from the universe as such.»
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