Revolutionaries of Quebec Abstraction

Quebec is remarkable for giving Canada two revolutionary art movements: the Automatistes in the 1940s, followed by the Plasticiens in the 1950s. While the Automatistes embraced a spontaneous approach to abstraction, the Plasticiens challenged their instinctual approach with an adherence to hard-edged geometry. Both movements, however, were aligned in seeking original and dynamic ways to engage with abstract painting as it evolved internationally following the second world war.

Gallery Gevik’s latest exhibition, Revolutionaries of Quebec Abstraction, celebrates some of the artists at the forefront of of both movements as well as a number of their talented disciples, including bold, gestural paintings by Marcelle Ferron, Rita Letendre and Lise Gervais, as well as rich colour field works by Ulysse Comtois, Marcel Barbeau and Fernand Leduc.

For this exhibition we are especially pleased to be turning the spotlight on the work of Marcelle Ferron (1924-2000).  Ferron was one of the most prominent figures in post-war Canadian abstract art. Her career encompassed more than fifty years, during which she constantly sought new avenues of artistic expression across painting, collage and stained glass work. An artistic firebrand, Ferron was an original signatory of the 1948 Automatiste manifesto, Refus global. Throughout her career Ferron remained faithful to the aesthetic principles underlying the Automatiste movement, namely the respect for gesture as an essential feature of authentic artistic expression. A long stay in Paris from 1953 to 1965 brought her closer to the proponents of lyrical abstraction and her style, which featured tumultuous bursts, crossing movements and contrasts, gradually gave way to brilliant colors contrasted with pure whites. Equally fascinated by the properties of antique glass and its possibilities as a medium, Ferron began researching glass production methods and their application in the composition of stained glass windows and skylights in the 1970s. As a master glassmaker, Ferron would go on to make many important contributions to architecture and public art throughout Quebec.

Ferron participated in all of the Automatiste group exhibitions, including the critically acclaimed retrospective, Borduas et les Automatistes at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1971, in addition to numerous group exhibitions in Europe and the U.S., including: L’Exposition des Surindépendants and le Salon des Réalités nouvelles in 1956, the Antagonisme show at the Louvre in 1960, and at the Paris Musée d’art moderne in 1962 and 1965. She also represented Quebec at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1961, and the Festival des Deux Mondes in Spoleto in 1962. In 1970, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal mounted a retrospective of her work, and in 1983, Ferron became first woman to receive the Prix Paul-Emile-Borduas. The Government of Quebec recognized her immense contribution to artistic culture by naming her grande officière de l’ordre national du Quebec in 2000.