thumb|Exhibition of the Automatistes, 1947 Claude Gauvreau, Julienne Gauvreau, Pierre Gauvreau, Marcel Barbeau, Madeleine Arbour, Paul-Émile Borduas, Madeleine Lalonde, Bruno Cormier and Jean-Paul Mousseau

Les Automatistes were a group of Québécois artistic dissidents from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The movement was founded in the early 1940s by painter Paul-Émile Borduas. Les Automatistes were so called because they were influenced by Surrealism and its theory of automatism. Members included Marcel Barbeau, Roger Fauteux, Claude Gauvreau, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Gauvreau, Fernand Leduc, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Guy Borremans, Marcelle Ferron and Françoise Sullivan.

The movement may have begun with an exhibition Borduas gave in Montreal in 1942. Held at the Ermitage, an exhibition hall owned by the Collège de Montréal, the show featured gouaches that illustrated the artist's experimentation with non-figurative painting. Initially, les Automatistes exhibited in makeshift venues, since no commercial gallery was willing to show the work of all the members.

Media

In 1954, the Automatistes were the subject of the NFB/CBC documentary series On the Spot in an episode entitled Artist in Montreal.

See also

  • Refus Global
  • Les Plasticiens
  • Painters Eleven

References

  • Text of Le Refus global (in French)
  • The Automatists and the Book by Michel Brisebois on Le Refus global as a printed book.
  • CBC Digital Archives – Le Refus global: Revolution in the Arts
  • Artist in Montreal a 1954 National Film Board of Canada documentary
  • Time Article on Borduas and Le Refus global
  • Total Refusal (Refus Global): the manifesto of the Montréal Automatists, translated by Ray Ellenwood. Holstein, Ont: Exile Editions, 2009.
  • Ellenwood, Ray. Egregore : a history of the Montréal automatist movement. Toronto: Exile Editions, 1992.
  • Nasgaard, Roald. The Automatiste revolution : Montreal, 1941–1960. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2009.