Art Gallery of Alberta (2 Sir Winston Churchill Sqaure) Ongoing through Sunday, October 14, 2012 Curated by Roald Nasgaard This exhibition includes 60 works of art, as well as photographs, books, and other ephemera documenting the history of the Automatiste, Canada's first truly avant-garde art movement. The Automatistes were the first artists to bring modernist painting to Canada and the first Canadian artists to embrace avant-garde gestural abstraction. Gathered under the leadership of Paul-Émile Borduas in the early 1940s, they were inspired by stream-of-consciousness writings of the time and approached their works through an exploration of the subconscious. They published Refus global (Total Refusal) in 1948 and it became one of the pillars of the Quiet Revolution, a period of intense change in Quebec. Refus global was an anti-religious and anti-establishment manifesto—one of the most controversial artistic and social documents in modern Quebec. The Automatistes were not solely painters, but also included dancers, playwrights, poets, critics, and choreographers. After twenty years of challenging the politically and religiously repressive Quebec society, the Automatiste group disbanded in 1960 after the death of Borduas. The exhibition will be contextualized by an installation of works from the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY) designed to illuminate the connections and relationships between these Canadian artists and their European and American counterparts, including the United States avant-garde, the Abstract Expressionists. City / Town : Edmonton Event Venue : Art Gallery of Alberta Short Description : This exhibition includes 60 works of art documenting the history of the Automatiste, Canada's first truly avant-garde art movement. Event Category : Museums / Attractions, Performing Arts / Culture Cost : Admission Where to purchase tickets : At the door More info : www.youraga.ca….
Event Details. Location:
2 Sir Winston Churchill Sqaure