BORDUAS (Paul-Émile). Refus global. Montreal]... - Lot 164 - Ader

BORDUAS (Paul-Émile). Refus global. Montreal] : Lithra-Mythe éditeur, 1948. - In-8, 217 x 178 : (4 ff.), 15 pp. (3 ff. first blank), (1 p.), pp. 1-11, (1 f.), 6 pp., (1 f.), 13 pp., (1 p.), pp. 1-3, (1 f.), 6 pp, (1 f.), 9 pp, (2 ff), 12 plates. In leaves, in double illustrated covers with flaps. First edition, which has become very rare today, of this artistic manifesto considered to be the most important document in the history of Canadian modernism. It was written by the painter and sculptor Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960), and co-signed by Magdeleine Arbour, Marcel Barbeau, Bruno Cormier, Claude and Pierre Gauvreau, Muriel Guilbault, Marcelle Ferron-Hamelin, Fernand and Thérèse Leduc, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Maurice Perron, Louise Renaud, Françoise and Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Françoise Sullivan. This manifesto is a severe critique of Quebec culture, denouncing conservative ideology, questioning the authority of the Church, and urging Quebecers to "break definitively with all the habits of society, to disassociate themselves from its utilitarian spirit" (p. 10). "Not only does Refus global question traditional values (Catholic faith and attachment to ancestral values), but it also proposes the "refusal" of any idea of withdrawal into oneself ("To hell with the goupillon and the tuque!") and champions an ideology of openness to universal thought for Quebec society. Expressing a profound need for liberation, the manifesto went so far as to wish, if not for "resplendent anarchy," at least for the birth of a new "collective hope. These ideas scandalized the authorities and Borduas lost his job at the École du meuble, where he had been teaching since 1937. The Quebec press supported the government and largely censored the manifesto. More than a hundred newspaper and magazine articles condemning the manifesto were published" (excerpt from the article Refus global by François-Marc Gagnon, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2006). Borduas's manifesto is complemented by eight other texts: En regard du surréalisme actuel and Commentaires sur des mots courants par Borduas. Au cœur des quenouilles, Bien-être and L'Ombre sur le cerceau by poet, playwright and painter Claude Gauvreau (1925-1971). L'Œuvre picturale is an experiment by psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Bruno Cormier (1919-1991). The Dance and Hope by dancer and painter Françoise Sullivan (born 1923). Whether we like it or not by the painter Fernand Leduc (1916-2014). The edition was printed at 400 mimeographed copies, numbered on Multiscript paper. It includes two covers with flaps illustrated by Jean-Paul Riopelle, and several photographic reproductions outside the text. The right flap of the black cover is unraveled and torn with missing pieces. The second cover is slightly browned. The interior is very well preserved. There are 4 duplicate leaves at the end.