Living Art Individual and Collective Creativity: Becoming Paul-Émile Borduas

Paul-Émile Borduas had both successes and failures as he tried to express in artwork and words his vision of a generous, spontaneous, creative society. He was the catalyst for events that led to the writing of an important social and artistic manifesto, Refus global (Total Refusal, in translation with Exile Editions) published in 1948 by the movement known as Les automatistes. Jean-Philippe Warren shows us the reversals and contradictions that make up this cultural figure, renowned for both his art and his thought. How his early hopes and doubts fermented in the crucible that is the mind of a young man. And how his attempts to find a new voice reflect the changes of a society trying to come to terms with a troubling and elusive modernity.

Steven Urquhart is an Associate professor of French at the University of Lethbridge. His research focuses on Quebec literature and culture, and translation of texts into English. He has previously translated two novels and one collection of short stories from the original French into English. Jean-Philippe Warren is a Canadian sociologist from Quebec. He holds degrees from Université Laval, the University of Montreal and the École Normale Supérieure, in Paris, and has previously published L'Engagement sociologique, la traditons sociologique du Québec francophone, which received the Prix Clio and Prix Michel-Brunet, and the biography Honoré Beaugrand: La plume et l’épée (1848–1906), winner of the 2015 Governor General's Award.