For the week of October 26, 2026.
On November 1, 1905, Paul-Émile Borduas was born in Saint-Hilaire (now Mont-Saint-Hilaire), Quebec. He was a painter, teacher, and thinker who led the Automatiste artistic movement in Quebec in the 1940s.
Paul-Émile Borduas was the fourth of seven children born to Éva Perrault and Magloire Borduas, a carpenter and blacksmith. In 1922 he began an apprenticeship with Ozias Leduc, who was a painter, church decorator, and fellow resident of Saint-Hilaire. Over the next seven years, Borduas assisted Leduc in church restoration and decoration projects across Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. He continued his training at the École des beaux-arts in Montréal (1923–1937) and the Ateliers d’art sacré in Paris (1928–1930). During this period, Borduas discovered artistic movements that would help shape his understanding of modernism.
In 1930 Borduas returned to Canada, teaching drawing and continuing his work in church decoration. He was hired in 1937 to teach at the École du meuble in Montréal, which had opened in 1935. He formed close ties with several of his students, including painters Jean-Paul Riopelle and Marcel Barbeau, as well as students from the École des beaux-arts, such as Françoise Sullivan, Maurice Perron, and Pierre Gauvreau. Together, they formed the Automatiste movement. Beginning in the early 1940s, Borduas participated in successful exhibitions in Canada and abroad, holding his first solo exhibition in Montréal in 1942.
Driven by a desire to transform Quebec’s artistic landscape, Borduas sought to create a spontaneous form of art, free from academic rules and preconceived ideas, which broke with the past. With the multidisciplinary group of young artists and intellectuals known as the Automatistes, he pursued nonfigurative artistic expression and progressive political debate. In 1948 the Automatistes published Refus global, mostly written by Borduas and co-signed by 15 other members. The publication called for creative freedom, while critiquing conservative nationalism and the Catholic church’s influence on Quebec society. Public backlash resulted in Borduas’ dismissal from his teaching position.
The publication negatively impacted Borduas’ career for several years. During this period, he supported himself by creating and teaching art in Saint-Hilaire until 1953, when he moved to New York City. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism, his style shifted, and he began to exhibit once more. Despite positive reviews from local critics, he moved to Paris in 1955 in hopes of advancing his career. He exhibited in France, Canada, and abroad between 1957 and 1959. In 1957 he painted L’Étoile noire (oil on canvas, 162.5 x 129.5 cm. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), largely considered to be his greatest work. Paul-Émile Borduas died of a heart attack in his Paris studio on February 22, 1960.
Borduas posthumously received the Guggenheim International Award for L’Étoile noire in 1960. He was further honoured with the creation of the prix Paul-Émile Borduas in 1977 as the highest distinction for Quebec artists. Refus global has also been recognized as one of the many events that foreshadowed the Quiet Revolution in Quebec during the 1960s. Borduas’ considerable body of work is now held in several museums and galleries, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and the National Gallery of Canada.
