Finding themselves excluded from Montréal's mainstream art institutions, the Automatistes and other non-figurative artists were forced to create their own exhibition venues. Paul-Émile Borduas and the Automatistes’ revolutionary manifesto, Refus global, was launched on August 9, 1948 at the small bookstore Librairie Tranquille (on Sainte-Catherine St. near Parc Ave.). The Automatistes and, later, non-figurative artists held makeshift exhibitions at Librairie Tranquille, hanging their work above the store shelves. In 1953, Fernand Leduc, Jean-Paul Mousseau (1927-1991), Marcelle Ferron (1924-2001) and Robert Roussil (born in 1925) facilitated an exhibition entitled Place des Artistes (82 Sainte-Catherine St.), a venue that was available to anyone interested in renting exhibition space. During this 80-participant exhibition, Guido Molinari (1933-2004)exhibited his works for the first time, ushering in a new generation of abstract art in Montréal. Two years later, Molinari opened Galerie L’Actuelle (278 Sherbrooke St.), a gallery exclusively committed to the exhibition of non-figurative work. Another important location was the café L’Échouerie (54 Pine Ave.), where the first manifesto of the Plasticiens, which was written in February 1955 and proclaimed the autonomy of the plastic qualities of painting, was launched. This café was both a meeting place for the Automatistes and an exhibition space for non-figurative art that had broken with the Automatiste style. It was in this context that artist Claude Tousignant (born in 1932), who had not signed the manifesto, exhibited his early experiments in hard-edge abstraction at L’Échouerie in March 1955.
Links to look at some images:
Claude Tousignant: http://tousignant.virtuel.macm.org/
Guido Molinari: http://www.paulkuhngallery.com/artistgalleries.cfm?artistid=18
Paul-Emile Borduas: http://www.cg78.fr/actu2004/borduas/chrono.htm
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