During the increasing secularization of Québec’s educational institutions, the École du meuble was formed from the cabinetry department of the École Technique in 1935. Functioning “between high art and technical skill”(2) the École du meuble fulfilled the educational mandate abdicated by the École des beaux-arts (fig. 3). The École des beaux-arts had been founded in 1923 by Emmanuel Fougerat (1869-1958), formally the director of the École des beaux-arts in Nantes, and conformed to the rigid outdated, educational models of nineteenth century European academies.  In contrast to the strict environment of the École des beaux-arts, the École du meuble was viewed as being relatively progressive. To distinguish itself from the École des beaux-arts, the École du meuble allowed for a variety of teaching styles and provided an alternative, more permissive setting for students as well as faculty members like Borduas. The École du meuble was described as having “less prestige; but apparently more liberty and energy than the École des beaux-arts.”(3) Many students disgusted with the programme as well as the restrictions imposed by the schools’ director Charles Maillard (1887-1973), were more comfortable with the “forces of liberty”(4) in action at the École du meuble. The tensions between the École des beaux-arts and the École du meuble created an intensely fertile environment for creative production, that was extremely influential in Borduas’ development as an artist.

While teaching at the École du meuble Borduas recognized the economic possibilities that craft and design created for emerging artists. Under the leadership of Jean-Marie Gauvreau (1903-1970), the École du meuble adopted “a very focused provincial and economic agenda”(5) (fig. 4). Although his own design philosophy was very classical, Gauvreau was open to modernist principles that were restricted at the École des beaux-arts. Opposed to industrial production, Gauvreau sought to increase the quality and variety of production, while creating a distinctly Canadian design image. (6) He actively promoted local materials and regional styles to domestic and foreign manufactures, architects and decorators. (7) The mandate of the École du meuble provided artists with a viable means to earn a living, while pursuing their own artistic goals. This is significant because Borduas often struggled to support himself financially as an artist, and benefited from many of the financial opportunities provided by the school.

In the summer of 1938, Borduas traveled in Gaspé with Gauvreau, doing a photographic survey and documentation of local craft practices. Funded by the Department of Tourism of the Province of Québec, the project was intended to find ways of increasing tourism to the area as well as promoting traditional craftsmanship. The trip produced a series of photographs that represent a unique, often over looked aspect of Borduas’ artistic production. The rural themes explored by Borduas emphasized continuity between Québec’s traditional arts such as quilting, carving and painting. (8) For Borduas the photographs were an interesting artistic exercise, but for Gauvreau they became valuable records of Gaspésian vernacular production that blended traditional and modernist approaches, and served as patterns to introduce at the École du meuble.

As an instructor at the École du meuble, Borduas developed many drawing and design exercises for his students. Published after his death, a series of Borduas writings provide the best evidence of what Borduas was officially teaching. In the section of Écrits, entitled “Decorative Composition”, Borduas outlines principles of colour theory, symmetry and design (fig. 5). A photograph from 1942 shows Borduas guiding students through studies of a cabinet (fig. 6). Although Borduas had developed more traditional technical exercises for his students he also encouraged abstract, gestural drawing similar to his own practice. (9).

Unlike his painting, Borduas’ furniture designs were far from avant-garde; instead they were very typical of the Québécois vernacular promoted by the school and Gauvreau. One particular example of this is an oak table designed by Borduas in 1943 and constructed by his students (fig. 7). Now in the collection of Dr. Alphonse and Mrs. Fernande Campeau this table, along with many other pieces was designed for Borduas’ own home in St. Hilaire (fig. 8). In fact much of Borduas’ home was renovated and furnished by himself and the architecture instructor of the École du meuble, Marcel Parizeau (1898-1945). The combination of modernist and traditional elements of the home reflects Borduas acceptance of the École du meuble’s aesthetic philosophy (10).

However by the late 1940’s Borduas’ views became increasingly opposed to those espoused by the school. Borduas and the director Gauvreau became symbolic of oppositional positions regarding art and craft in Québec’s artistic milieu. Although Borduas recognized the economic viability of decorative production he opposed Gauvreau’s exaltation of the Québécois artisan. Whereas Gauvreau encouraged regional values, Borduas was calling for a shift towards more universal expressions. (11)

While teaching at the École du meuble, Borduas was physically and theoretically situated in an environment that encouraged and valorized craft production. After publishing his attack on the stale academic and religious atmosphere of Québec, society, the Refus global in 1948, Borduas was dismissed from the École du meuble. According to the school’s board of directors, “the writings and the manifestos he publishes, as well as his state of mind, are not conducive to the kind of teaching we wish for our students…” (16) Borduas defended his contribution to the Refus global as being entirely separate from his involvement in the École du meuble. His dismissal from the school represents a philosophical divide between the pedagogical role of the École and the dynamic progression of the avant-garde.

Despite his later comments, several of Borduas’ paintings reflect his initial decorative influences. Early in his career he completed a design for a stained glass window, which appears later in one of his paintings, the Portrait of Henriette Cheval (1931). In Self-Portrait (1928) Borduas presents himself seated on a typically French-Canadian Louis XIII turned chair (fig. 9). Featured prominently in the background, is a vibrant, log cabin quilt that almost foreshadows his later abstract production. In another work Portrait of Gabrielle Borduas (1940), a loose brush stroke blurs the distinction between the figure and the chair in which she is sitting (fig. 10). A later photograph of an exhibition inside his St. Hilaire home depicts the chair, possibly one created at the École du meuble (fig. 11). Another connection made by Gloria Lesser suggests an interesting intersection in Borduas’ production, noting that often Borduas’ and other Automatists paintings were bordered by intricately carved wooden frames, a further “integration of ‘art’ and ‘decoration’.” (17)

Borduas’ vehement denial of having any part in designing fabric, or ever participating in decorative arts, was in response to R.H. Hubbard’s reference to Borduas’ collaboration with Peter Freygood of the Canadart Print Company. A Canadian Homes and Gardens article from 1950, declared Borduas as one of “four Canadian artists, united in the belief that art should be extended to the practical side of decorating.” (18) Along with prints created by Stanley Cosgrove (1911-2002), Robert LaPalme (1908-1997) and Alfred Pellan (1906-1988), Borduas inspired textiles were sold at Morgan’s department store, the site of one of his previous exhibitions. Despite his later claims, Borduas had in fact consented to allow his Number 28 (1942) to be used as a pattern for printed fabric. Freygood had purchased the gouache at the 1942 Ermitage exhibition, and later in 1950 received Borduas’ permission to reproduce the highly decorative image on fabric. Charles Hill suggests that having recently been fired from the École du meuble, Borduas would have consented for financial reasons. Costing five dollars a yard, the silk-screened fabric came in three different colours, ideal for making lampshades, dresses, slipcovers, scarves and curtains.”(19) A photograph published in the Revue moderne showing Borduas, happily watching his wife and daughter hang curtains made from the print, proves that initially Borduas was pleased with his “useful” product (20) (fig. 12).

Francois-Marc Gagnon suggests that Borduas’ renunciation of utilitarian production lies in his Surrealist influences. (21) During the 1940’s Borduas became increasingly interested in the theories of the Surrealist artist André Breton (1896-1960), in which elements of everyday life are deemed unimportant in comparison to the rich content of subconscious, inner workings. Like other avant-garde movements, Surrealism “pushed Romantic anarchism and individualism to an extreme.”(22) As Borduas began to move towards a “pure” aesthetic experience as a painter, he exulted himself above the merely “decorative” applied arts. 

Borduas’ denial of his applied art production, combined with his nasty split with the École du meuble and his self imposed artistic exile can be read as reinforcing stereotypical ideas of the artistic genius as opposed to the collaborative craftsperson.  Later in his career Borduas firmly established himself within the artistic hierarchy as a serious, modernist painter, rather than a producer of utilitarian objects. He ideologically distanced himself from his craft production while living and working in New York and Paris. In these places painting’s modernist principles were “characterized by simplified form and a denial of traditional craftsmanship… distanced from utilitarian design objects by a determined non-functionality. [T]hey were to be seen as pure conception, pure idea.”(23) Borduas’ attitudes towards craft production implied his belief “that innovation and originality can be realized most effectively outside of craft traditions.”(24)

Although Borduas decidedly broke from applied arts and craft traditions many of his students continued to strive to integrate art and architecture. Obviously inspired by a profound period of mutual influence many of Borduas’ students from the École du meuble as well as students from the École des beaux-arts in Borduas’ circle went on to actively incorporate elements of craft and design into their practice. Madeleine Arbour (b.1924) became a well-known interior decorator and Fernand Leduc (b. 1916) experimented with textile production. Highlighted in the Metro Borduas exhibition as significant artistic insertions into the Montréal Metro are Marcelle Ferron’s (1924- 2001) stained glass piece and Jean-Paul Mousseau (1927-1991) and Claude Vermette’s (1930-2006) ceramic works.

Throughout his career Borduas engaged to varying degrees with productions outside traditional definitions of high art. Although Borduas significantly influenced, and was influenced by the École du meuble, his early craft production has been over shadowed by his later achievements as an avant-gard painter.