Total Refusal/Refus Global

“In 1948 Canada was recovering from the Second World War, Mackenzie King was prime minister, and we were entering the United Nations. Television and the baby boom were in their infancy, and in Quebec the Duplessis government was battling organized labour. Meanwhile, on a hot afternoon in August, a group of Montréal artists, including pioneers in the field of writing, painting, dance, theatre, design, and architecture, released 400 mimeographed copies of the Automatist Manifest, Refus Global. The manifesto created a furor. Group leader Paul-Emile Borduas was fired from the École du Meuble. Jean-Paul Riopelle and Pierre Gauvreau objected to Borduas’ comments on surrealism. Other members argued over tactics and the purpose of the manifesto. By 1955, the dust had settled and both the group and the manifesto fell from sight. It was not until the 1970s that its full importance was recognized. Members of the group have gone on to achieve considerable success. Riopelle appeared in Breton’s Surrealism and Painting and signed a surrealist manifesto. At that time a museum devoted to his work was being planned for Quebec City. Art historian Dennis Reid has called Refus Global the most important aesthetic statement that has ever been made in Canada.”