Paul-Émile Borduas

Collections
Selected works from 1900 to 2000

Paul-Émile Borduas
Saint-Hilaire (Québec, Canada), 1905 – Paris (France), 1960
Training

Studied and worked under Ozias Leduc, where he was introduced to religious painting and church decorating.
Enrolled at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal in 1923 and graduated in 1927.
Continued his studies in France, at the Ateliers d’art sacré, where he stayed for two years.

Artistic production

Cézanne’s influence is obvious in his works of the 1930s.
As of the 1940s, his figurative bent disappeared and was replaced by abstraction. He was interested in the Surrealist movement and the work of André Breton. Was inspired by automatic writing typical of the Surrealists in creating the Automatistes group.
His work has a far-reaching effect on the development of Québec art constituting progress towards modernity, with the resolute choice of abstraction and the search for freedom by removing any and all constraints.

Alongside his artistic career

Taught drawing to children in the Commission scolaire de Montréal. In 1937, replaced Jean Paul Lemieux as drawing and decoration professor at the École du Meuble de Montréal, a position he held until 1948.
With John Lyman helped found the Contemporary Art Society (CAS).
Founded the Automatistes group with young artists from the École du Meuble.
Left Canada for the United States in spring 1953. Productive artistic period. Met the most influential painters of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism.
In 1955, left New York for Paris, where he lived until his death in 1960.

Noteworthy accomplishment

Published the Refus global in 1948, a virulent manifesto which resulted in his being dismissed from the École du Meuble de Montréal.

Feature

From 1956 to 1960, Borduas travelled in Italy, Sicily, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Greece and Switzerland. His works were exhibited at the same rhythm as his travels.