Françoise Sullivan: Life & Work by Annie Gérin

FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Life & Work by Annie Gérin
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Contents
03
Biography
19
Key Works
50
Significance & Critical Issues
62
Style & Technique
74
Where to See
79
Notes
85
Glossary
100
Sources & Resources
108
About the Author
109
Copyright & Credits
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan (b. 1923) is best known as a pioneering figure of

modern dance and one of the signatories of the 1948 manifesto Refus
global (Total Refusal). But Sullivan also produced an extensive body of
performance and installation works, photographs, sculptures, and
paintings that coalesce around issues of primal energy, movement,
improvisation, and art’s relationship to its environment. With a career
that spans more than seventy years, Sullivan is one of the most versatile
and enduring artists of her generation.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
EARLY LIFE
Born on June 10, 1923, in Montreal, Françoise Sullivan was the youngest of five
children and the only daughter of Corinne (Bourgouin) and John A. Sullivan.
Sullivan’s father practised law and occupied numerous political posts
throughout his career.
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, 1936, photograph by Studio Garcia. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan (front), John A. Sullivan (left), and Corinne
Sullivan (third from left) with family friends, 1934, archive of the artist.
Sullivan wanted to be an artist from an early age. Her parents appreciated art
and encouraged their daughter in her pursuits. Her father especially loved
poetry and wrote the occasional poem. Her mother enrolled her from the age
of eight in various classes: dance, drawing, music, and acting. She was
passionate about dance and started creating choreography in her early teens,
putting on recitals for the neighbourhood children.
At that time, pursuing the arts was seen as a respectable pastime for young
women, one that provided them with a cultural education. She had begun to
develop friends with whom she exchanged ideas on intellectual and artistic
subjects: Sullivan met Pierre Gauvreau (1922–2011) and Bruno Cormier (1919–
1991). She considered them her first intellectual encounter. Her parents were
familiar with art and did not object when she expressed the wish, at the age of
sixteen, to register at the École des beaux-arts in 1940.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, age fourteen, at l'École de danse Gérald Crevier, photographer unknown, Dance Collection Danse Archive,
Toronto. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan and Pierre Gauvreau, l'École de danse Gérald Crevier, Le spectre de la rose, 1940s, archive of
the artist.
AT THE ÉCOLE
At a time when higher education was not accessible to most women, the École
des beaux-arts accepted both male and female students, pending an entry
exam, and was free. Sullivan registered in drawing and painting classes, and
she excelled. She won the school’s first prize for drawing in 1941, the first prize
for painting in 1943, and the Maurice Cullen prize for painting, also in 1943.
Throughout this time, she continued to dance, training with Gérald Crevier
(1912–1993), a classical and tap dancer who went on to found Quebec’s first
classical ballet company in 1948.
The pedagogical program at the

École des beaux-arts, like those of
traditional European academies,
was based on drawing from
classical plaster moulds and the
study of the human figure.
Imitation was key, and creativity
was frowned upon. But Sullivan
was curious about new trends
in art and complemented her
education by studying
reproductions of the works
of modern artists such as
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973),
Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), LEFT: Souvenir program The Firebird, June 1910, from the Ballets Russes of Serge
Diaghilev, Library of Congress, Music Division. RIGHT: Fernand Léger, Mechanical Ballet
Marc Chagall (1887–1985), and (Ballet mécanique), 1924, 35mm film (black and white, silent), 12 min., Museum of
Henri Matisse (1869–1954). She Modern Art, New York.
read the poetry of William Blake
(1757–1827), Émile Nelligan (1879–1941), Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867),
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), and William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), whose

interest in dreams and myth provided their works with an aura of
disreputability in Catholic Quebec. With school friends Louise Renaud (b.
1922), Fernand Leduc (1916–2014), and Pierre Gauvreau (1922–2011),1 she
also listened to the music of avant-garde composers Igor Stravinsky (1882–
1971) and Edgard Varèse (1883–1965), and attended the lavish performances
that the Ballets Russes gave at His Majesty’s Theatre in Montreal.
Although the Second World War had begun in 1939 and wartime policies
often meant rationing and restrictions on the home front, the cultural scene in
Montreal was becoming more dynamic than ever. Painters such as John Lyman
(1886–1967) and Alfred Pellan (1906–1988) had recently returned to the city
after years spent abroad, where they had participated in movements such as
Fauvism, Cubism, and Surrealism. They advocated for the development of
modern art in Quebec through art criticism, lecture series, and exhibitions of
modern European art. Sullivan sought out these events: in 1939 she saw the
Art of Our Day exhibition organized by Lyman through the Contemporary Arts
Society, which included works by Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), André Derain
(1880–1954), and Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920); and in 1941 she met and
befriended French painter Fernand Léger (1881–1955) at a showing of his 1924
experimental film Mechanical Ballet (Ballet mécanique).
BORDUAS AND THE AUTOMATISTES

In 1941 Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960) saw one of Pierre Gauvreau’s
paintings at a student exhibition. Impressed with the work, Borduas
invited the young painter to his studio. Sullivan accompanied her friend,
along with Louise Renaud and Fernand Leduc. In the years that followed,
the group expanded to include several students from Montreal’s École du
meuble, where Borduas was teaching. They met every two weeks on
Tuesday evenings in Borduas’s studio on Mentana Street in Montreal, and
later in Fernand Leduc’s and Jean-Paul Mousseau’s (1927–1991) studios.
Starting in 1943 the group also made periodic outings to the town of
Saint-Hilaire, where Borduas moved with his family. During these
meetings, they talked about art and the creative process, and they
discussed the works of Pierre Mabille, whose writings on wonder and the
imaginary, at the crossroads of anthropology, sociology, and medicine,
had a profound influence on Sullivan. Borduas rejected the traditionalism
Pierre Gauvreau, Françoise Sullivan, Louise
of academic art, with its conventional themes and style, and valued Renaud, Madeleine and Mimi Lalonde,
above all creativity, spontaneity, and free expression. Claude Gauvreau, and Marcel Barbeau in
Saint-Hilaire, 1946, photographer
unknown, Dance Collection Danse
Quebec was then entrenched in what has become known as La Grande Archive, Toronto.
Noirceur (The Great Darkness), a period of its history characterized by
conservative politics, firm religious dogma, patriarchal values, and censorship.
Concerned for their society, the group also discussed philosophy, politics,
religion, and psychoanalysis. “It was about breaking with social values. We
wanted to overthrow established rules.… We had to strike a blow at our
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
reactionary society.”2 Because the group was influenced by the French

Surrealists’ concept of automatism, which was based on Freudian theories of
free association, Borduas and his young friends soon became known as the
Automatistes. 3
The paintings Sullivan made in the

early 1940s draw mainly from
Fauvism. In works such as Portrait
of a Woman (Portrait de femme),
about 1945, she explored non-
naturalistic use of colour and
developed a broad and expressive
brush stroke reminiscent of Henri
Matisse’s manner. Sullivan’s
introduction of subjects that were
unconventional at the time, such
as Indigenous people in
Amerindian Head I (Tête
amérindienne I), 1941, and
Amerindian Head II (Tête
Françoise Sullivan, Still Life (Nature morte), c. 1940, oil on board, 16 x 25 cm, collection
amérindienne II), 1941, testifies to of Madeleine Arbour.
her desire to escape bourgeois
social constraints and tap into what was then called “primitivism,” a sensibility
that preferred aesthetics and values unspoiled by modernity and Western
cultures.
In the following years, Sullivan took a class at the École des beaux-arts with
Alfred Pellan, a painter who worked in the wake of Surrealism. With him, she
mainly studied figure painting, and with his other students she participated in
the Surrealist game of the Exquisite Corpse, which she also practised with
members of the Automatiste group. In the spring of 1943, Sullivan participated
in her first group exhibition. Les Sagittaires was organized by art critic Maurice
Gagnon at Montreal’s Dominion Gallery of Fine Art, founded by Rose Millman
in 1941 to showcase and promote Canadian art. The goal of the exhibition was
to introduce a new generation of Quebec artists to the Montreal public.
Twenty-three painters under the age of thirty participated in the event, which is
now recognized as the exhibition that launched Automatism.
Later that year, Sullivan published a short article titled “La peinture féminine”
(“Feminine Painting”) in Le Quartier Latin, the Université de Montréal student
newspaper. 4 It reflected on the progress made by women in the arts over the
previous fifty years in Canada and abroad. It also inaugurated a lifelong writing
practice, which Sullivan would use to situate her work within current artistic
debates.
Graduating from the École des beaux-arts in 1945 put Sullivan at a crossroads.
She had become frustrated with painting; she felt unable to create works that
reflected her understanding of Automatism or communicated the energy she
put into them. She decided to focus her attention on dance.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
THE NEW YORK PERIOD

Quebec in the early 1940s had no established modern dance schools or
troupes. 5 Sullivan’s friend from the École des beaux-arts, Louise Renaud, had
moved to New York in the fall of 1943 to study theatre lighting with German
director Erwin Piscator (1893–1966). In 1945 Sullivan decided to join her and
study modern dance in New York.
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan in Central Park, New York, c. 1946, photograph by Laredo, archive of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan at
Franziska Boas’s studio in New York, c. 1947, photographer unknown, archive of the artist.
Renaud also worked as an au pair in the family of Pierre Matisse, an art dealer
and the son of the painter. Matisse’s gallery was a chief meeting place for the
Surrealists who had fled Europe and taken refuge in New York after the
beginning of the Second World War, and through this connection Sullivan
heard stories about artists whose work she had sought out while a Beaux-arts
student.
Between the fall of 1945 and the spring of 1947, Sullivan trained with several
troupes and teachers, including the New Dance Group, Hanya Holm (1893–
1992), Martha Graham (1894–1991), Pearl Primus (1919–1994), Franziska
Boas (1902–1988), and La Meri (1899–1988), of whom Boas was certainly the
most influential. Boas was the daughter of Prussian-born American
anthropologist Franz Boas, who had revolutionized anthropology by
challenging the racially biased premises that had shaped the discipline.
Like her father, Franziska Boas understood her craft as a means for social
activism, and worked throughout her career to facilitate the social integration
of marginalized groups through dance.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
In this context Sullivan was

introduced to non-Western music
and dance patterns. She also
learned improvisation, which was
the backbone of Boas’s
pedagogical practice. This
approach, designed to free the
body and allow it to follow its own
impulses, echoed Borduas’s
teachings and resonated deeply
with Sullivan. During this period
she met composer Morton LEFT: Poster for Franziska Boas’s studio, 1945, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Feldman and the renowned RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan with Mary O’Connell at Franziska Boas’s studio in New York,
c. 1947, photographer unknown, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
anthropologist Margaret Mead.
The time Sullivan spent in New York was of crucial importance to her own
artistic development, but it also had a decisive impact on that of her Montreal
colleagues, with whom she kept in contact. The role she, along with Louise
Renaud, played in bringing to Quebec recent ideas and reports of the artistic
debates happening in New York should not be overlooked; during the Second
World War, it was more difficult for her male friends to travel for extended
periods, since young men had to remain available for the war effort.
Sullivan was also instrumental in making Quebec art known outside its borders.
She organized the Automatistes’ first New York exhibition in January 1946. The
exhibition, titled The Borduas Group, was shown at Franziska Boas’s studio. 6 It
showcased paintings by Borduas, Pierre Gauvreau, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Jean-
Paul Riopelle (1923–2002), Guy Viau (1920–1971), and Fernand Leduc. Sullivan
did not include her own works—she had left painting behind in Montreal.
RETURN TO MONTREAL: REFUS GLOBAL

When Sullivan returned to Montreal in 1947 after completing her training with
Boas, she found a society shaken economically and socially by the war and
making a return to its prewar ways under the conservative government led by
Maurice Duplessis (the period known as La Grande Noirceur [The Great
Darkness]) after the short respite of Joseph-Adélard Godbout’s Liberal
government between 1939 and 1944. Provincial politics were marked by a
foregrounding of Catholic ideology that recalled Quebec’s earlier Survivance
period. 7 Continued involvement of the Church in publicly funded French-
language schools and hospitals reinforced the idea that Quebec was, above
all, a Catholic society, and that the Church had power over the course of
people’s lives.
Duplessis’s government took advantage of broad-reaching censorship laws to

limit the activities of cultural, religious, and political groups not in line with its
policies. Since 1937, Quebec’s Padlock Act (Loi du cadenas) had allowed the
provincial government to censor and destroy “subversive” materials deemed to
have communist or Bolshevik leanings, with the definitions of “communist,”
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
“Bolshevik,” and “subversive” open to interpretation by those in power. 8 Public

discussion of social issues was severely restricted, and individuals and groups
opposed to the dominant ideology, such as the Automatistes, struggled to
bring their ideas to a public forum.
The relative cultural freedom that had characterized the war period had,
however, left its mark. It had allowed progressive social forces to consolidate,
in particular with regard to women’s rights, workers’ solidarity, and
emancipation from religious dogma. In smaller journals and in open letters in
Quebec newspapers (particularly the left-leaning Le Devoir), artists and
intellectuals such as the Automatiste writer Claude Gauvreau (1925–1971), the
poet and spokesperson of the group, responded to attacks on the art and
politics of a growing progressive and modernist movement centred in
Montreal. 9
Françoise Sullivan, Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948, image from the album Danse dans la neige published by Françoise
Sullivan in fifty copies, S.l. Images Ouareau (1977).
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Sullivan set herself up to teach modern dance in 1947. 10 Her classes were
strongly influenced by Boas’s methods, and improvisation and openness to
other cultures became the cornerstones of Sullivan’s own pedagogy as she
gradually shifted from the role of student to that of mentor. In the summer of
1947, she decided to create a cycle of improvised solo dances to be filmed on
the theme of the four seasons. The only remaining traces of this work are the
haunting photographs taken by Maurice Perron (1924–1999) in February 1948
of Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige).
On April 3, 1948, Sullivan teamed up with Jeanne Renaud (b. 1928), Louise
Renaud’s younger sister, who had just returned from New York, where she too
had been studying dance. At Ross House, a mansion on Peel Street where
military officers held their meetings, they performed a recital comprising eight
works they had choreographed to a public composed of friends and local
artists; it is considered to be the first modern dance performance in Quebec.
Drawing from their modern dance training as well as from the ideas developed
with Borduas and the group, they tried to translate Automatiste principles into
movement. They did this by favouring expression and creativity, and freeing
their bodies from classical conventions. Motivated by their enthusiasm for
projects by artists from the group, Maurice Perron proposed to do the lighting,
while Jean-Paul Riopelle served as stage manager and Jean-Paul Mousseau
created set designs and some costumes. The attending public raved about the
innovative quality of Sullivan and Renaud’s work. The dance performance did
not, however, attract the critical attention they had hoped for, but it drew an
informed and very enthusiastic public. 11
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan and Penny Kondak in Duality (Dualité), 1949, photographer unknown, archive of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise
Sullivan and Jeanne Renaud in Duality (Dualité), 1948, photographer unknown, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
A few months later, Sullivan became one of the sixteen signatories of Refus
global (Total Refusal), the famous manifesto penned by Borduas that
contributed significantly to Quebec crossing the threshold of modernity. The
declaration tackled much more than art; it denounced conservative and
religious values, and called urgently for a social transformation that would
occur through creativity. It insisted on the inherent relationship between art,
social emancipation, and the unconscious, and openly challenged Quebec’s
traditional values, fears, and prejudices.
Four hundred copies of the manifesto were made, and it was launched on
August 9, 1948, at the Librairie Tranquille, a small bookstore that sold non-
conformist and prohibited literature and was a meeting place for Montreal’s
intellectuals and artists. The publication featured a cover designed by Jean-
Paul Riopelle and contained, in addition to the manifesto itself, two other texts
by Borduas, three plays by Claude Gauvreau, as well as contributions by Bruno
Cormier (1919–1991), Fernand Leduc, and Françoise Sullivan.
Sullivan’s piece focused on the

emancipatory potential of dance.
“La danse et l’espoir” (“Dance and
Hope”) had originally been
presented as a public talk on
February 16, 1948, as part of a
conference series titled Literary
Mondays (Les lundis littéraires),
organized by Julienne Saint-Mars
Gauvreau, mother of Sullivan’s
friends Pierre and Claude LEFT: Refus global, first published in an edition of four hundred copies, and launched on
Gauvreau, in her Sherbrooke Street August 9, 1948, at the Librairie Tranquille in Montreal. RIGHT: Invitation to Françoise
Sullivan’s reading of her essay “La danse aujourd’hui,” February 16, 1948, Dance
home. The text bears the traces of Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. Later the same year, the essay was published in Refus
Sullivan’s exchanges with Borduas, global under the title “La danse et l’espoir” (“Dance and Hope”).
as well as of the two years she
spent in New York. It proposes an understanding of dance as “a reflex, a
spontaneous expression of
intense emotion”12 that is always in dialogue with the material world
and primal forces.
It took courage and conviction for Sullivan to participate in this outright

challenge to Quebec society. Her family was traditional, with close links to
conservative politics. As she recalled, “At that time, my father was a
commissioner at the Montreal Catholic School Commission, and he always
talked about me with great pride. One day, the president of the commission
arrived with Refus global and said, ‘Is that your daughter?’ That evening, when
my father came home with the manifesto, there was a storm. But my family
loved me enough to get over it.”13
The publication of Refus global paradoxically marked the beginning of the end
of the Automatiste movement. A few weeks after its launch, Borduas was fired
from his position at the École du meuble, and several of the signatories left
Quebec soon after to pursue their calling in France. Sullivan remained in
Montreal to develop her career as a dancer.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
1950S AND 1960S: FROM DANCE TO SCULPTURE

In 1949 Françoise Sullivan wed
painter Paterson Ewen (1925–
2002). They had met on the
February 1948 evening when
Sullivan had read “La danse et
l’espoir” to a group of Montreal
artists and students in Julienne
Saint-Mars Gauvreau’s living room,
and had soon become inseparable.
The year 1950 marked the birth of
LEFT: Paterson Ewen and Françoise Sullivan in New York, 1957, photographer unknown,
their first son, Vincent. Three more Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan and her sons,
sons soon followed: Geoffrey in Vincent, Francis, Jean-Christophe, and Geoffrey, in their home, 1961, photograph by
Paterson Ewen, archive of the artist.
1955, Jean-Christophe in 1957,
and Francis in 1960.
At this time, motherhood and work were largely understood to be

incompatible, but Sullivan kept up for a few years with the demands of her
career as a sought-after dancer and successful choreographer, working on
independent projects as well as for the CBC from 1952 to 1956. But she soon
realized that she needed to change her path:
It was not possible [to continue dancing] because when you dance, you need
to be away for classes, rehearsals, television shows.… At first, I remember, I had
a lot of time to myself. I was playing housewife and I found it amusing. But,
after a while, I got the impression I was losing my identity, and I became
terrified. I felt the need to return to work, but it had to be work that would not
take me away from home, that would allow me freedom to decide how to use
my time. I did not want to go back to painting because my husband was a
painter, and I felt this art belonged to him. So I started to make sculptures. 14
In 1959 Sullivan set up a studio in

the family’s garage. Sculpture
allowed her to work from home
and be with her children, while
also providing her with a new
creative challenge. After moulding
a few clay pieces, she turned to
metal, assembling materials that
she found in scrapyards. At this
point she was self-taught. She also
took professional welding lessons
at the École des métiers in Lachine.
Her first sculpture exhibition took

place in 1962 at the Salon du
Printemps de Montréal, and the
Jeanne Renaud and Peter Boneham performing Rideau during Expression 65 in 1965.
following year Sullivan received Set design by Françoise Sullivan, metal wire and steel, 221 x 213.4 cm, photograph by
the first prize in the Concours Marc-André Gagné, Bibliothèque de la danse Vincent-Warren, Montreal.
artistique de la province de
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Québec, for Concentric Fall (Chute concentrique), 1962. The visually dynamic
work is made of small metal shapes, a square, and several circles that are
welded around a vertical axis, displaying equilibrium, energy, and graceful
movement—and revealing a certain continuity with her dance work.
Throughout the 1960s she also created large dynamic sculptural installations
that functioned as sets for Jeanne Renaud’s and Françoise Riopelle’s (b. 1927)
dance performances.
Sullivan rapidly became known as an important Canadian sculptor, showing her

works in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Paris, Milan, and Middelheim in Belgium.
In 1966 she was asked to create a work that would be displayed on the
grounds of Expo 67. For the occasion, she produced Callooh Callay, 1967, her
largest work to date. Later that year, no longer satisfied with the mere
suggestion of movement, she started introducing mobile elements into her
works. She also experimented with light synthetic materials, such as Plexiglas,
that offered the possibility to create fluid shapes and play with transparency.
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Concentric Fall (Chute concentrique), 1962, steel, 32.5 x 104 x 24 cm, Musée national des beaux-arts du
Québec, Quebec City. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Madame Récamier (also known as Reclining Woman), 1966, bent and welded steel,
114 x 161 x 74 cm, Canada Council Art Bank.
1970S: CONCEPTUAL AND PERFORMANCE ART

Sullivan’s marriage to Ewen fell apart at the end of 1965, and they separated
soon after. The breakup prompted her to take stock of her personal life and re-
evaluate her goals as an artist. In 1970 Sullivan visited Europe for the first time,
and upon her return, in spite of her success as a sculptor, she decided to
embark on a new trajectory.
This was a period when artists were decrying the commodification of art and
the complicity of the art world with social and economic inequalities. In order
to resist the art market, many Canadian artists, such as Michael Snow (b. 1928),
Joyce Wieland (1930–1998), and General Idea (active 1969–1994), developed
approaches that were difficult to commercialize: performance, land art,
installation. This path resonated with Sullivan, who had already explored the
social potential of art through her involvement with the Automatistes and
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Franziska Boas. In 1973 she joined Véhicule Art, a Montreal-based artist-run

centre that exhibited and promoted experimental art. It is there that, in 1976,
she met sculptor David Moore (b. 1943), with whom she would often exhibit.
Sullivan’s practice from this period is infused with conceptual art ideas and
techniques. She was particularly interested in experimenting with ways of
making works that didn’t rely on the production of objects. In an interview
given to the journal Vie des Arts in 1974, she explained: “I am returning to zero,
to silence. I need to rid myself of the old art forms that no longer correspond
to our reality.”15 Yet her art always remained embodied and sensual: she
performed, for example, a series of walks during which she ambled through
various parts of the city, including its industrial sites. These were carefully
documented with photographs that were later exhibited. Walk between the
Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts (Promenade entre le
Musée d’art contemporain et le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal), 1970, in
particular, has become key in the history of conceptual art in Canada.
In 1976 Sullivan designed a guided walk for Corridart, a public exhibition

organized by Melvin Charney in conjunction with the Montreal Olympic
Games. Jean Drapeau, Montreal’s mayor at the time, was offended by the
image of Quebec society that the works presented; many overtly exposed
Montreal’s social and economic problems. To Sullivan’s chagrin, the event was
shut down four days before the Games’ opening ceremony, in what was one of
Canada’s most notorious episodes of artistic censorship.
LEFT: View of Françoise Sullivan’s Legend of Artists (La légende des artistes), 1976, during Corridart, Sherbrooke Street, July 5, 1976,
photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier, Archives de la ville de Montréal. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Labyrinth (Labyrinthe), 1981, serigraph
on wove paper, third edition, 50 x 65.5 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and various collections. The structure of the labyrinth
provided a methodology for some of Sullivan’s choreographies, in which the dancers would spin until they became completely
disoriented. The maze is also an important element in Greek mythology, which fascinated Sullivan throughout her career.
Between 1976 and 1979 Sullivan began to travel more frequently. Her children
were grown by then and, freed from most of the daily requirements of
parenting, she again immersed herself in her work. On her own or with the
assistance of Moore and other friends, she created series of photographs that
documented her blocking and unblocking doors and windows of derelict
houses with stones and twigs (Blocked and Unblocked Window [Fenêtre
15
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
bloquée et débloquée], 1978); collecting rocks and organizing them in circles

in the landscape (Accumulation, 1979); or using her body as a sundial to cast
shade on ancient stonework (Shadow [Ombre], 1979). These works, which
required repetitive labour and physical engagement with her environment,
were inspired by Sullivan’s recurrent travels to Italy, Greece, and Ireland, where
she visited rugged sites, and were created in these locations as well as in
Canada. They also testify to her encounters with Arte Povera, an Italian
movement that opposed artistic traditions and commodification by creating art
out of non-valuable, non-traditional materials. She had met, in Rome in the
summer of 1970, several members of the movement, including Yannis
Kounellis (1936–2017), Emilio Prini (1943–2016), Germano Celant (b. 1940),
and Mario Diacono (b. 1930), and found that their shared sensibility matched
her own.
LEFT: Choreographic notes for Françoise Sullivan’s Hierophany (Hiérophanie), 1979, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
RIGHT: Rehearsal of Françoise Sullivan’s Hierophany (Hiérophanie), 1980, photograph by Denis Farley, archive of the artist.
The use of her body in the production of these works, at the crossroads
between ephemeral art, documentation, and performance, led Sullivan to
renew her relationship with dance. After a twenty-year hiatus, she began to
choreograph again in 1978, with a piece titled Hierophany (Hiérophanie). She
also embarked on a new career, teaching dance, sculpture, and painting in
Concordia University’s Department of Studio Arts in Montreal, from 1977
to 2010.
RETURN TO PAINTING
At a time when influential art critics and artists such as Lucy Lippard (b. 1937),
Donald Judd (1928–1994), Hal Foster (b. 1955), and Joseph Kosuth (b. 1945)
were claiming that painting was dead, Sullivan made her way back to it.
Although she found joy in conceptual art, she missed the crafting of objects
and spending time in the studio. As she explained, “I yearned for the long and
sometimes arduous process of making works. And I had always wanted to
come back to painting.”16
16
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The paintings she created from the

1980s onward were clearly marked
by all the experience she had
garnered since her beaux-arts
period as a dancer, choreographer,
sculptor, and performance artist, as
well as by her travels, and by her
encounters with conceptual art
and Arte Povera in the early 1970s.
Her first exhibited series, the
Tondo cycle, 1980–82, consisted LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Tondo no. 6, 1980, acrylic on canvas, 169 x 178 cm, collection of
the artist. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Cretan Cycle no. 13 (Cycle crétois no. 13), 1984,
of large circular canvases that had
acrylic and collage on canvas, 201 x 242 cm, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec,
been cut up and reassembled, and Quebec City.
to which were sometimes affixed
ropes, branches, or pieces of metal. Sullivan followed this with the Cretan
Cycle (Cycle crétois), 1983–85, a series that she realized on the island of Crete,
where she and David Moore lived in 1983–84. These paintings are large
irregular canvases populated with beast-like figures with mythological
overtones, inspired by Greek history, literature, and landscape, and the
archaeological sites Sullivan visited during her stay.
From the beginning of the 1990s, Sullivan’s painting gradually moved toward
abstraction and the monochrome. Through mastery of colour and brush stroke,
she developed a technique that produces the illusion of vibrations on the
surfaces of her works and makes her paintings appear to glow from within.
Although at first glance the large-scale canvases recall Minimalism and the
work of artists such as Fernand Leduc, Agnes Martin (1912–2004), and Richard
Tuttle (b. 1941), they always retain the movement and the sensuality that
characterize Sullivan’s dance, performance, and sculpted works. They are also
mainly improvised, or rather crafted, as though in a dialogue between the artist
and her canvas. As Sullivan explains, “It’s good to have an idea to start with.
But the best paintings happen when you are in a state of awareness.”17
Françoise Sullivan, Reds (Rouges), 2009–10, acrylic on canvas (diptych), 198.4 x 396 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
17
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
RECOGNITION
The last few decades of Sullivan’s career have proven to be very productive
and have been marked by regular exhibitions of recent works. She has also
become known as one of the most enduring artists of her generation, with a
professional art practice that spans more than seventy years. This recognition
has generated important retrospectives of her work, including Françoise
Sullivan: Rétrospective at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1981;
Françoise Sullivan at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in 1993;
Françoise Sullivan (Rétrospective) at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal in
2003; Françoise Sullivan at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2008; Françoise
Sullivan: Hommage à la peinture at the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-
Saint-Paul in 2016; Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires resplendissantes at the
Galerie de l’UQAM in Montreal in 2017; and a retrospective exhibition at the
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in the fall of 2018.
Sullivan has been widely

acknowledged for her impact on
the Canadian art world, including
with the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas in
1987, a Governor General’s Award
in 2005, the Medal of the Academy
of Arts and Humanities in 2006,
the Gershon Iskowitz Prize for
Canadian art in 2008, and the
Diplôme d’honneur from the
Canadian Conference of the Arts in
2009. She has been admitted into
the Order of Canada (2001), the
Ordre National du Québec (2002),
the Royal Society of Canada
(2005), and the Ordre de Montréal Françoise Sullivan in her studio, 2007, photograph by François Lafrance, archive of the
artist.
(2017).
Throughout her career, Sullivan has believed in constant and fearless

experimentation. There is nevertheless a remarkable coherence in her work:
her dance, sculpture, performance, and painting all coalesce around issues of
primal energy, movement, improvisation, and art’s relationship to its
environment, whether that be natural, urban, psychological, cultural, or social,
always affirming life and freedom. As she herself remarked, “Everything must
be connected, only the inevitable must be.”18
Françoise Sullivan continues to paint in her Pointe-Saint-Charles, Montreal,

studio, and she still develops performance and choreography projects.
18
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan has created a remarkably diverse body of work

throughout a career that spans more than seventy years. The artworks
selected here represent Sullivan’s development in painting, dance,
sculpture, performance art, and photomontage, as well as her
commitment to improvisation and her experimental approach to every
aspect of her creative work.
19
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
AMERINDIAN HEAD I 1941
Françoise Sullivan, Amerindian Head I (Tête amérindienne I), 1941

Oil on board, 30 x 28.5 cm
Collection of the artist
20
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Amerindian Head I portrays a young Indigenous girl encountered by Sullivan in

1941 while she was visiting her friend Louise Renaud (b. 1922) and her family
at their cottage on Lake Ouimet in the Laurentian Mountains, north of
Montreal. As she recalled, “It was a wonder for me to be allowed to paint this
little girl and her sister.”1
The girl’s face, with its dark, piercing eyes and ruby-red lips, occupies the
greater part of the composition. She is set against a background that
resembles Indigenous decorative weave patterns. Sullivan marked her
subject’s face with painted dashes in red, violet, and blue. Her use of
colour—borrowed from French modern masters, particularly Pierre
Bonnard (1867–1947), Henri Matisse (1869–1954), and André Derain
(1880–1954)—paradoxically constituted a homage to Indigenous people,
who had traditionally integrated art and patterns in every aspect of their
lives, including in the decoration of their bodies.
This small oil painting was made during the first year of Sullivan’s studies
at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal. It was shown in the spring of
1943, as part of the first group exhibition Sullivan participated in, Les Françoise Sullivan, Amerindian Head II
(Tête amérindienne II), 1941, oil on
Sagittaires at Montreal’s Dominion Gallery of Fine Art. The subject stood
board, 45 x 41 cm, collection of the artist.
out among the portraits of family members and friends exhibited by
many other artists. It testified to her desire to escape bourgeois social
constraints by identifying with the Other and tapping into what was then called
“primitivism”—the recourse to techniques or motifs inspired by non-European
traditions. This painting is one of Sullivan’s favourite works from her student
years; she has never sold it and she keeps it in her studio.
21
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
DANCE IN THE SNOW 1948
Françoise Sullivan, Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948

From the album Danse dans la neige
Published by Françoise Sullivan in fifty copies, S.l. Images Ouareau (1977)
Dance in the Snow is part of an improvised cycle of dance solos dedicated to

the seasons, initiated by Sullivan in 1947, soon after her return from New York.
Instead of performing in a studio, she would dance outside, without an
audience, interacting with the elements and the landscape. She intended to
execute four improvisations, to be filmed and presented together as a
complete work.
22
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
In February 1948 Sullivan set out

for Otterburn Park, southeast of
Montreal, where her artist friends
Françoise Riopelle (b. 1927) and
Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923–2002)
lived. Dressed in a sweater, a long
skirt, leggings, and fur-lined boots,
she improvised Dance in the Snow.
The sequence of movements was
vigorous, suggesting a crescendo
of emotions and raw energy. In the
silence of the frosty day, Sullivan’s LEFT: Jean-Paul Riopelle, plate from the album Dance in the Snow, choreography
improvised by Françoise Sullivan, 1948; print, 1977, silkscreen, black and grey ink on
broad gestures were echoed only white velum paper, 38.8 x 38.8 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. RIGHT: Françoise
by the crunching of her steps on Sullivan, Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948, image from the album Danse
dans la neige, published by Françoise Sullivan in fifty copies, S.l. Images Ouareau (1977).
the thick, rough layer of ice
covering the snow. Riopelle filmed
the performance, while Maurice Perron (1924–1999) photographed it. Perron’s
iconic pictures remain the only record of the event; Riopelle’s film has been
lost. The photos show Sullivan in arrested movement, her arms, legs, and torso
stretching or curving expressively. Her body appears to levitate because of the
lack of differentiation between foreground and background in the barren
landscape.
Summer (L’été) had been danced on the granite boulders that stand over the
sea at Les Escoumins in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec in June 1947, and
was filmed by Sullivan’s mother. That film too has since been lost. The final two
episodes of Sullivan’s improvised cycle were not realized. 1
While choreographers frequently used improvisation to develop compositions,

Sullivan’s idea for the single performance to be danced without a set
choreography was groundbreaking, as was her desire to reserve the live
performance for the eye of the camera only, and show the public the filmed
documentation.
23
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
BLACK AND TAN 1948
Françoise Sullivan, Black and Tan, 1948

Performance
Costume by Jean-Paul Mousseau
24
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Set to the music of jazz pianist Duke Ellington, this dance piece attempted to
capture the expansive power of movement. It rejected altogether vertical
movements such as leaping and spinning, which were the hallmark of classical
dance. Instead Sullivan started by moving her feet close to the ground, tracing
a figure eight. The movement then spread through her body, travelling from
one body part to the next, gradually gaining her calves, her knees, her thighs,
her hips, her rib cage, her shoulders, her neck, and her head. Her use of facial
expression was innovative and contrasted strongly with classical dancers’
traditionally impassive features; when the movement reached her face, Sullivan
stood still, facing the audience, tracing the figure eight with only her eyes.
Sullivan had originally planned to

dance the piece wearing a fringed
shawl she had borrowed from her
mother. But her friend, the painter
Jean-Paul Mousseau (1927–1991),
offered to create a costume for
her. Worn over a black leotard, it
was made of rope tangled over her
arms and legs, and a burlap bodice
painted with abstract designs. A
burlap cape fastened to the back
of her costume swirled around her.
She wore a headpiece of snaking,
brown rope. The costume
enhanced Sullivan’s movements
and gave her the appearance of a
Françoise Sullivan performing Black and Françoise Sullivan wearing the costume
shaman channelling Tan, 1948, photographer unknown, Dance Jean-Paul Mousseau designed for Black
transcendental energies into the Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. and Tan, 1948, photograph by Annette
and Basil Zarov, Dance Collection Danse
human world. Archive, Toronto.
Black and Tan was first presented publicly at Ross House in Montreal in 1948,
during a recital that showcased choreographies by Sullivan and by Jeanne
Renaud (b. 1928), considered to be the earliest modern dance presentation in
Quebec. It evoked Sullivan’s first encounters with jazz music, as well as the
African American dance culture she had come across in Harlem when studying
dance in New York in the mid-1940s. Named after Ellington’s 1927 jazz
composition, it also refers to an expression then used in the American South to
designate the bars where people of African, Asian, and European descent were
allowed to mingle, listening and dancing to live music.
25
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
CALLOOH CALLAY 1967
Françoise Sullivan, Callooh Callay, 1967

Painted steel, 284.5 x 122 x 91 cm
University of Regina, Saskatchewan
26
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
In the late 1950s Sullivan turned to sculpture as an accessible art form to

practise while raising four children, and rapidly became known as one of
Quebec’s most important modern sculptors. In 1966 she was commissioned by
Arnold Phillips, on behalf of the Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World
Exhibition (the government organ created in 1962 with the sole objective of
organizing Expo 67), to create a monumental sculpture for the exhibition site,
which would spread across the recently expanded, manufactured Notre Dame
Island and St. Helen’s Island in the St. Lawrence River, east of Montreal.
Callooh Callay, originally installed near the Japan Pavilion on the Expo 67
grounds, consists of a series of geometrical shapes—circles and a square—
arranged around a vertical axis, all painted bright red. Its composition closely
resembles that of Sullivan’s earlier sculpture Concentric Fall (Chute
concentrique), 1962, for which she was awarded first prize in the Concours
artistique de la province de Québec in 1963. The work was cut from steel and
assembled in a factory outside Montreal. Up until this point, Sullivan had
always welded her own sculptures, but the sheer magnitude of the work—it was
close to three metres high—compelled her to seek help.
The title, Callooh Callay, is drawn

from Lewis Carroll’s Through the
Looking-Glass and What Alice
Found There (1871). It is an
expression of joy. And the
monumental sculpture is
surprisingly playful. The red was
inspired by the fire engines and
trucks Sullivan and her four young
sons were fascinated by during a
summer spent in Quebec’s Eastern
Townships. The bright glossy LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Fall in Red (Chute en rouge), 1966, painted steel,
210.5 x 127 x 52 cm, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. RIGHT: Reinstallation of
colour evokes public vehicles, but
Callooh Callay at the University of Regina in 2010, photographer unknown, University of
even more so children’s toys, and Regina Archives.
it challenges the perception of
steel as an industrial material. The organization of the shapes, which seem
to be flying up or swiftly tumbling down, contrasts with the stability of the
vertical element and the obvious weight of the material from which they were
cut. Art critic Yves Robillard praised Sullivan’s sculpture as one of the most
successful of the Expo, explaining that “no impression of gravity is felt at the
sight of this piece.”1
In 1968, after the Expo closed, Callooh Callay was donated to the University of
Regina, Saskatchewan. The costly move from Montreal to Regina was
sponsored by the House of Seagram. The monumental sculpture was then
installed on the University of Regina campus, exposed to the elements. Over
the decades, it rusted and suffered some damage when it was hit by a truck.
The University of Regina restored the work in 2010.
27
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
AERIS LUDUS 1967
Françoise Sullivan, Aeris Ludus, 1967

Painted steel, 300 x 549 x 152.5 cm
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
In the mid-1960s Sullivan started to experiment sculpturally with movement.

Hung above the ground by cables that tend to disappear in the light, Aeris
Ludus comprises a series of circular and square shapes that sway in the wind in
a way that evokes dance, and that chime when they collide. The dynamic effect
is accentuated by the apparent mismatch between the enormous, bright red,
asymmetrical steel base and the lighter upper structure from which the
seemingly weightless shapes dangle into the void. Unlike Sullivan’s earlier
sculptural works, such as Concentric Fall (Chute concentrique), 1962, and
Callooh Callay, 1967, Aeris Ludus does not simply suggest movement: it is a
kinetic sculpture. It is very different, however, from the mechanized kinetic
works that were being produced in the 1960s by Nicholas Schöffer (1912–
1992) or the wind-activated structures of George Rickey (1907–2002) that
follow regular trajectories. The movement in Sullivan’s work is irregular and
unpredictable, and recalls her earlier danced improvisations.
28
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The playfulness of the work—its title means “aerial play” in Latin—is in stark
contrast with the industrial materials that it is made of, as well as with the
welding techniques Sullivan used in its creation. That lightheartedness
reveals how Sullivan always looked askance at the seriousness and hard-
edgedness of machine aesthetics and Minimalism, which played down
the artist’s subjectivity and were both dominant in Quebec sculpture
during the 1960s, most notably in the work of Ulysse Comtois (1931–
1999), Pierre Heyvaert (1934–1974), and Yves Trudeau (b. 1930–2017).
Installation view of Françoise Sullivan’s
Aeris Ludus was presented in 1967 as part of Sculpture ’67, an open-air Cercles et rectangles, 1966; Aeris Ludus,
1967; and Fata Morgana, 1966, at
exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Canada in the context of Sculpture ’67 in Toronto, photographer
Canada’s centennial celebrations and held in Nathan Phillips Square, by unknown.
Toronto City Hall. It was later donated by the artist to the Musée d’art
contemporain de Montréal.
29
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
OF ONE 1968–69
Françoise Sullivan, Of One (De une), 1968–69

Plexiglas, 243.8 x 73.7 cm
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City
Moulded from a single sheet of Plexiglas, Of One is a translucent spiral that

suggests infinite movement. Almost two and a half metres long and placed
directly on the ground, it is a remarkably simple and elegant work that draws
the viewer’s attention equally along its whole length. To create this sculpture,
Sullivan worked at the Hickey Plastics company, where workers who made toys
and household items taught her how to shape the malleable material. The
Plexiglas sheet was heated, then pressed around a cylindrical form and
moulded into a consistent spiral, with all areas of the surface of equal width
and thickness. Then all traces of the process were erased by polishing.
30
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Whereas Sullivan’s metallic

sculptures such as Concentric Fall
(Chute concentrique), 1962, and
Callooh Callay, 1967, manage to
suggest weightlessness in spite of
their actual weight, Of One goes
one step further: it seems to
dematerialize before the viewer’s
eyes as light flows through it and
its edges disappear. The
suggestion of infinity incarnated
by the spiral might recall important
earlier twentieth-century sculptural
works, such as Constantin
Brancusi’s (1876–1957) Endless
Column, 1938, but it also evokes
the archetypal figure of the circle.
This shape punctuates Sullivan’s
work throughout her career, from
the spiralling movement of her LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Spiral, 1969, Plexiglas, 35.4 x 31 x 6.5 cm, photograph by
body in the dances she Richard-Max Tremblay, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. RIGHT: Constantin
Brancusi, Endless Column (Version 1), 1918, oak, 203.2 x 25.1 x 24.5 cm, Museum of
choreographed to the
Modern Art, New York.
accumulations of stones she
created in the 1970s and the
circular paintings of the 1980s.
In the late 1960s Minimalist sculpture, which reduced form to the essentials
and downplayed personal expression, was going strong. Sullivan was very
much influenced by it, even though her personal inclination was to make
expressive and dynamic art. With Of One, she found a way to greatly simplify
her work while remaining true to her interest in movement: “This was the most
minimal sculpture I could imagine making.”1
31
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
WALK BETWEEN THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS 1970
Françoise Sullivan, Walk between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of
Fine Arts (Promenade entre le Musée d’art contemporain et le Musée des beaux-arts de
Montréal), 1970
Thirty-two gelatin silver prints and a map, each photograph and the map:
26.6 x 26.6 cm
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
32
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
In 1970 Françoise Sullivan walked from the Musée d’art contemporain de

Montréal, then located at Cité du Havre, across Montreal’s historic port and
downtown core to the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal on Sherbrooke
Street. This performance was the first in what would become a series of
documented walks by the artist.
The documentation of the work

includes thirty-two square, black
and white photographs and a map
of the city onto which the path the
artist followed is traced. Sullivan
took the pictures herself, adhering
to a self-imposed rule: each time
she arrived at a corner, she would
photograph whatever was directly
in front of her, ignoring as much as
possible subjective impulses or
aesthetic concerns. The images LEFT: Walk between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts
(Promenade entre le Musée d’art contemporain et le Musée des beaux-arts de
show buildings, roads, vehicles, Montréal), 1970, gelatin silver print, 26.6 x 26.6 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
advertisements, and street signs, RIGHT: Walk between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts
highlighting the visual complexity Montréal), 1970, gelatin silver print, 26.6 x 26.6 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
of the environment and suggesting
that culture is what happens outside cultural institutions as well as
inside them.
In the 1970s many artists were questioning the role of art, its commodification,
and the seemingly pointless accumulation of works in museum collections.
They were also trying to break free from artistic traditions they felt had become
sterile. Although Sullivan agreed with this position, she was uncomfortable
when artists suggested museums were no longer needed. Her response to this
predicament was to move away from sculpture to explore ways to make art
without relying on the fabrication of objects, but to maintain her appreciation
of museums as places where art ideas could be developed and appreciated. In
Walk between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts,
Sullivan drew from her earlier training as a dancer; this allowed her to
elaborate on an original performance art practice that focused on the artist’s
body and its relationship to its social and cultural environment. In this way,
Sullivan’s walks harked back to her 1947 and 1948 danced improvisations on
the theme of the seasons.
33
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
PORTRAITS OF PEOPLE WHO RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER 1971 (PRINTED

2003)
Françoise Sullivan, Portraits of People Who Resemble One Another (Portraits de

personnes qui se ressemblent), 1971 (printed 2003)
Two digital black and white prints mounted on wood panels, each: 152.4 x 101.6 cm
In 1971 Françoise Sullivan was living in Rome with her four sons, and she often
visited museums while the children were in school. One day, at the Galleria
Nazionale, she happened upon one of the several paintings entitled Portrait of
a Young Man by Lorenzo Lotto (1480–1556). In it a youth faces the viewer with
an open gaze, his shoulder-length hair framing his face. Sullivan was moved by
the painting, though she didn’t immediately know why. At the museum gift
shop, she found a postcard of the painting and bought it.
When her sons returned home that afternoon, the youngest, Francis, showed
his mother his school photograph, taken that same day. Sullivan was struck by
how much her son resembled Lotto’s youthful subject in spite of the some four
hundred years that separated them. Francis too faced the viewer with a calm
and open gaze, and he too sported shoulder-length hair, his bangs covering
his forehead, as those of Canadian boys often did in the 1970s.
34
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The resulting work juxtaposes the two images Sullivan encountered that day,
pasted on a rectangular piece of cardboard. The idea was a simple one,
nodding to the tradition of the readymade. But she felt it was also a powerful
one, one that managed to illustrate in a sharp and concise way the recurrence
of images, styles, and ideas over time. 1 It was first shown ten years later, in
1981, as part of Sullivan’s first retrospective at the Musée d’art contemporain
de Montréal, and again in 2017 in the Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires
resplendissantes exhibition at the Galerie de l’UQAM. In these contexts, the
images were reprinted large scale in black and white, mounted on wood
panels, and displayed next to one another directly on the gallery wall.
35
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
LEGEND OF ARTISTS 1976
Françoise Sullivan, with the assistance of David Moore and Jean-Serge Champagne,
Legend of Artists (La légende des artistes), 1976
Showcase dedicated to the Automatistes: metal, wood, glass, and documents
LEFT: “Les Automatistes,” photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier, Concordia University
Archives, Montreal
RIGHT: “La galerie L’Actuelle,” photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier, Archives de la
ville de Montréal
Corridart was a six-kilometre-long public exhibition displayed along

Sherbrooke Street in Montreal between Atwater Street and the Olympic
Complex, and timed to coincide with the 1976 Olympic Games. Artist and
architect Melvin Charney (1935–2012) organized the event, which brought
together some sixty artists, including Pierre Ayot (1943–1993), Claude
Thibaudeau (b. 1932), Bill Vazan (b. 1933), and Françoise Sullivan. With the
assistance of David Moore (b. 1943) and Jean-Serge Champagne (b. 1947),
who worked according to her directions, Sullivan conceptualized twelve panels
and six small exhibition cases, which she placed on the sidewalks in front of the
homes where important intellectuals and artists, such as Émile Nelligan (1879–
1941), Norman Bethune (1890–1939), Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960), Pierre
Gauvreau (1922–2011), and Claude Gauvreau (1925–1971) had lived, or where
important cultural events had occurred, such as L’Actuelle, a gallery founded
by Guido Molinari (1933–2004) and Fernande Saint-Martin (b. 1927).
36
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The laminated wood cases were

about half a metre high and set on
red-painted steel legs. Resembling
tiny museums, they displayed
pictures, texts, and various objects
meant to provide insight into
Montreal’s particular history and
cultural sensibility. Said Sullivan, “I
wanted this work to be a display of
the artist’s practice but also a
tribute to ideas that survive over
LEFT: Demolition of Corridart, Sherbrooke Street, July 13 and 14, 1976, photograph by
time … I approached it in a way Louis-Philippe Meunier, Archives de la ville de Montréal. RIGHT: L’affaire Corridart
that I felt would be humane, postcards, 1977, BAnQ, Vieux-Montréal.
profound, almost Proustian.”1
Legend of Artists was the fourth walk in Sullivan’s oeuvre. To it she brought a
fresh approach that allowed her to innovate, once again, with performance.
Rather than documenting her experience as an artist, Legend of Artists was an
invitation to the public to discover the cultural life that had characterized
Montreal’s development over time as they strolled along one of its main
arteries. Few people, however, got to experience the work. The vision of
Montreal’s culture and history that Sullivan and the other artists put forth
focused on modernity and diversity, but the exhibition also deliberately
exposed Montreal’s social and economic problems at that time, and this
outraged Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau. Inaugurated on July 7, 1976,
Corridart was dismantled on July 13, four days before the Olympic Games’
opening ceremony. Infuriated by the decision and the destruction of their
works, twelve artists—including Sullivan—launched a lawsuit against the City of
Montreal. It took twelve years for the plaintiffs to reach a settlement of a few
thousand dollars each. For Sullivan, “Corridart will always be an affront. I had
approached the project as a serious one. I worked with all my heart, as if I was
reconstructing a chronicle from across time.”2
37
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
ENCOUNTER WITH ARCHAIC APOLLO 1974
Françoise Sullivan, Encounter with Archaic Apollo (Rencontre avec Apollon archaïque),
1974
Thirteen photomontages on gelatin silver print, each: 15.5 x 22.9 cm
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
In the spring of 1973, Sullivan realized a performance work, Walk among Oil
Refineries (Promenade parmi les raffineries de pétrole), during which she
strolled among the massive shapes of oil tanks in an industrial park in the east
end of Montreal. The October 1973 oil crisis was just about to happen. The
environmental movement was still in its infancy, but Sullivan was already
questioning our increasing dependency on fossil fuel and the ways cities were
transforming because of it.
In 1974 she revisited the

photographic documentation of
that walk and created a
photomontage in which she
included the image of a Greek
statue of Apollo, a reference to the
ancient cultures she had
encountered in her recent
European travels. The presence of
Apollo, god of music, purification,
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Encounter with Archaic Apollo (Rencontre avec Apollon
and beauty, in the tank farm archaïque) (detail), 1974, thirteen photomontages on gelatin silver print, each:
alongside Sullivan herself bridges 15.5 x 22.9 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. RIGHT: The Strangford Apollo, c. 490 BC,
Parian marble statue of a boy, 101 cm, British Museum, London.
ancient and contemporary times. It
also asks what the role of the artist
has become and if beauty still has a place in the contemporary,
industrialized world.
38
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Sullivan has always been keenly interested in the impact humans have on the
natural environment. In a 1993 interview she stated that had she not become
an artist, she most certainly would have joined the environmentalist
movement: “I am astounded by the lack of discernment humans have shown
with regard to our beautiful planet … I would say that, in a certain way, this is
the inherent subject of all of my work.”1
39
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
BLOCKED PHONE BOOTH 1978–79
Françoise Sullivan, Blocked Phone Booth (Cabine téléphonique bloquée), 1978–79

Black and white silver print and collage, 50.8 x 33 cm
In this black and white photomontage, a telephone booth, similar to those that
punctuated North American cities in the 1970s, is crammed with large
boulders. The inspiration for this work came to Sullivan in a dream, in 1973,
which she jotted down in one of her notebooks. In the dream, a woman walked
and ran around the outside of a house, attempting to get in. She reached for
its windows but they were too high or blocked. She attempted to open its
doors, but none of the keys she held fit the locks. She continued trying, on and
on, because she knew the house was her home. 1
40
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Sullivan worked through the idea

of a blocked house repeatedly,
with variations, in different media.
From 1976 to 1979, she created a
series of photomontages from
pictures she took of houses and
other structures. Blocked Phone
Booth belongs to this series. The
phone booth was chosen because
its walls and door are made of
glass and therefore clearly reveal
the boulders that fill it, suggesting
blocking communication. LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Blocked Window, 1977, tar, acrylic, photo, and collage on
canvas, 112 x 84 cm, collection of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Blocked Window
(detail), 1977.
In 1977 and 1978 Sullivan
developed performative approaches to the same idea. She painstakingly filled
the open doors and windows of abandoned houses she encountered during
her European travels with rocks of various sizes until the apertures were
completely blocked, and then she set out to unblock them. Her collaborator in
these works was David Moore (b. 1943), who documented her repetitive labour
on film and in photographs. Blocked and Unblocked Window (Fenêtre bloquée
et débloquée), for example, was created in the Blasket Islands, Ireland, and
in Santorini, Greece. The documentation shows the artist absorbed by her task.
Together, the photographs, photomontages, and performances constitute an
excellent example of how Sullivan’s conceptual art practice functioned through
repetition, and how it allowed the artist to work through an idea and elaborate
different visual solutions.
41
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
TONDO VIII 1980
Françoise Sullivan, Tondo VIII, 1980

Acrylic on canvas and rope, 287 x 298 cm
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City
42
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Tondo VIII is a large canvas circle, edges slightly frayed, hung without a frame.
Its surface is roughly painted in dark blues. The brush strokes are visible and,
along with the scratches and irregularities in the canvas that disrupt the plane,
highlight the materiality of the work and the labour-intensive nature of
painting. The burlap rope affixed to the surface further challenges the harmony
of the circular monochrome. As a sculptural element added to the painting,
the rope hangs across the canvas from top to bottom and comes to rest on the
floor, stretching out for about 30 centimetres, opening the composition to the
gallery space and pulling the viewer in.
Purchased by the Musée national

des beaux-arts du Québec in 1984,
the painting is a strong example of
the cycle of works that marks
Sullivan’s return to painting after
roughly thirty-five years; she had
set painting aside in the 1940s and
turned to the exploration of dance,
sculpture, and conceptual art.
Throughout the 1970s, Sullivan
visited Italy several times,
spending much time in museums
and galleries, seeking out ancient
as well as contemporary art. While LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Tondo III, 1980, acrylic and collage on canvas, 152 x 158 cm,
collection of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Tondo II, 1980, acrylic on canvas, with
in Rome, she met members of the steel rod, 146 x 153 cm, collection of the artist.
Arte Povera movement, who used
non-traditional materials, such as garbage, cloth, and objects found in nature,
in their works and focused on the process of making art rather than on the
finished product. Sullivan had always hoped to renew with her painting
practice. Her contact with the Arte Povera artists and their works allowed her to
see how she could do this without putting aside the interest in materiality she
had acquired as a sculptor, and the commitment to process she had
developed as a dancer and performance artist.
Often monochromatic, cut up, and reassembled, the Tondos are circular,
exploiting an archetypal form that recurs in many of Sullivan’s earlier works.
The extreme simplicity of both the composition and the materials recalls a
series of photographs Sullivan created in the 1970s, documenting
performances in which she organized stones and other objects she found in
nature on the ground in circles.
43
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
CRETAN CYCLE 2, NO. 3 1985
Françoise Sullivan, Cretan Cycle 2, no. 3 (Cycle crétois 2, no. 3), 1985
Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 183 cm
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton
One in a series of some twenty works created from 1983 to 1985, Cretan Cycle
2, no. 3 is an irregularly shaped assemblage, unframed and hung directly on
the wall. Fragments of canvas, roughly painted in browns, greys, and blues, are
sewn together and juxtaposed in a way that suggests tectonic plates. A horned
figure, half-human, half-animal, appears to be dancing, perhaps in a trance, on
the rugged, textured landscape of the fabric. In front of him, seven snakes
stand on their tails, as if charmed. In the upper left corner, a blue expanse
suggests water or sky.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The series marks Sullivan’s return to figurative painting and was created
following a year (1983–84) she spent in Crete. There she encountered
ancient ruins and sculptures, as well as a parched, barren landscape that
captured her imagination and renewed the interest in primal forces and
myth that had punctuated her practice from the beginning, from her early
painting Amerindian Head I (Tête amérindienne I), 1941, to the
photomontage Encounter with Archaic Apollo (Rencontre avec Apollon
archaïque), 1974.
A complex mythical universe unfolds over the span of the Cretan Cycle Françoise Sullivan, Cretan Cycle 2, no. 2
series, 1983–85, which is particularly vivid in Cretan Cycle 2, no. 3. Motifs (Cycle crétois 2, no. 2), 1985, acrylic on
canvas, 161 x 184 cm, Beaverbrook Art
are carried over from one painting to the next. Sullivan combines a beast-
Gallery, Fredericton.
like horned figure, birds, snakes, rivers, and mountains to suggest
creation myths, meditative moments, or secret rituals. She does not
represent mythical stories, but rather invents situations of prayer, sacrifice, or
conflict, moments when ancient Cretans might have experienced divine
intervention.
45
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
MOUNTAIN 1997
Françoise Sullivan, Mountain (Montagne), 1997

Three murals and four benches made of granite, varied dimensions
Pavillon Président-Kennedy, Université du Québec à Montréal
Mountain consists of three large-scale sculpted murals and a series of four

objects positioned on the ground. All of the elements were cut from eleven
types of granite, displaying hues ranging from green to yellow, red, brown, and
violet. The stone was brought to Montreal from Italy, Greece, and other
locations, each variety individually chosen by the artist. Commissioned in the
context of Quebec’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture,1 this is
Sullivan’s first and only permanent sculptural ensemble and the only
occurrence of her using stone to create sculpted surfaces reminiscent of her
painted works. Installed in September 1997 at the Pavillon Président-Kennedy
of the Université du Québec à Montréal, the monumental work was two years
in the making.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The first mural is located in the

pavilion’s main hall, at the
mezzanine level, and represents an
imaginary mountain range. The
variety of polished granites
Sullivan used in this element of the
work highlights the diversity of
geological formations, and the
natural stone evokes geological
time, the thousands of years it
takes for magma to become
granite, having crystallized and
merged with rocks and minerals.
At the centre of the composition,
on opposite sides of a fault line,
two carved goats face each other,
Installation view of Françoise Sullivan, Mountain (Montagne), 1997, murals of acrylic,
one of them half-human. They concrete, limestone, cement, and granite, varied dimensions, Pavillon Président-Kennedy,
recall the mythological figures that Université du Québec à Montréal.
populate Sullivan’s Cretan Cycle

(Cycle crétois) paintings, 1983–85, and her ongoing interest in the recurrence
of styles and motifs over time, as in Portraits of People Who Resemble One
Another (Portraits de personnes qui se ressemblent), 1971. On the mezzanine
itself, back to back with the first mural, a second mountain barrier unfolds in
monochromatic green Laurentian granite. A third mural leads the viewer from
the main hall at ground level into a corridor. This one represents five
mountains streaked with traces of magma. Carved in matte limestone, its
surface contrasts with the sheen of the other two, highlighting its distinct
material quality.
Four large, irregularly shaped benches have been placed near the wall of
windows that open the hall onto the street. Cut from Laurentian granite, they
evoke glacial erratics, boulders left there from another age. The large blocks
are engraved with Greek letters from a two-thousand-year-old text Sullivan
encountered carved in stone at Mount Nemrut, a Turkish archaeological site
dedicated to King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene. The words mean “I
escaped great dangers.”
47
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
HOMAGE TO PATERSON 2003
Françoise Sullivan, Homage to Paterson (Hommage à Paterson), 2003

Acrylic on canvas (diptych), 348 x 574 cm
This gigantic diptych envelops the

viewer in hues of red and orange.
Variations in the density of the
pigment produce rhythmical waves
and the illusion of a breathing
surface. The left panel, in shades
of red, is painted with criss-
crossing brush strokes that
produce depth and a layered,
vibrating effect. Light seems to
emanate from within it. The right
panel is crafted from red and
orange strokes. Subtle drama
stems from its structure, in which LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Jean-Paul (no. 4), from the series Homages (Hommages), 2002–
appear horizontal bands of colour, 03, acrylic on canvas, 244.3 x 198.5 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. RIGHT: Françoise
Sullivan, Homage to Ulysse no. 3, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 244 x 198 cm, collection of the
slightly lighter than the rest. A
artist.
monochromatic work of art such as
this is much more complex than it
seems at first glance, requiring on the part of the painter mastery of technique
and colour to produce the most elusive effects.
48
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
The work is the crowning achievement of a series of monochromes titled

Homages (Hommages) that Sullivan created in 2002 and 2003 and exhibited
during her 2003 retrospective at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal as
emblematic of her painting at the turn of the twentieth century. Several of her
friends, artists who inspired her, had recently passed away: painter and
sculptor Ulysse Comtois died in 1999, Automatiste painter Marcelle Ferron in
2001, and her former husband, painter Paterson Ewen, in 2002. She thought
about them often while she painted, and decided to name a monochrome
from the series she was working on after each of these friends. She dedicated
the best and largest to Ewen “because he was the greatest of all painters.”1
49
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan actively participated in the Montreal art scene

for more than seventy years and was a key player in its cultural events.
As a leading woman member of the Automatistes, she brought a new
visual sensibility to art in Quebec, and her writings and lectures were
pivotal at a time when criticism focused primarily on the painting
practices of male artists. Although she constantly experimented and
often changed her approach to art making, she remained committed
to self-expression and to improvisation as a way of unleashing
creative energy.
50
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
BEING AN ARTIST AND A WOMAN

Gender was rarely discussed in the writing about art in Quebec before the
1970s. From the 1920s on, however, the presence of women’s work in art
exhibitions was often seen as worth noting because it was unusual. Even when
their work was considered innovative and significant, as was that of Prudence
Heward (1896–1947), Sarah Robertson (1891–1948), and Anne Savage (1896–
1971), it was nevertheless qualified as “feminine” and therefore different in
nature from that of their male counterparts. In an early essay, “La peinture
féminine” (“Feminine Painting”), written in 1943, Françoise Sullivan shared this
popular bias about the female artist: “Painting, under her fairy-fingers, is
transformed; we are far from male painting, his art is of a different sensibility.”1
Françoise Sullivan at Hickey Plastics, working on a Plexiglas sculpture, 1968, photograph by Michiko Yajima Gagnon, Dance Collection
Danse Archive, Toronto. Sullivan is assisted by her friend Pierre Blackburn.
In her own artistic career, however, Sullivan never seemed limited by

stereotypes. In fact, women were unusually well represented in the Automatiste
group, of which Sullivan was a member in the 1940s: seven of the sixteen
signatories of the Refus global (Total Refusal) manifesto were women, and they
thrived within the context of the movement’s rejection of established artistic
traditions. Sullivan also avoided resorting to the essentialist strategies that
became popular in feminist circles in the 1970s with the work of Judy Chicago
(b. 1939), Nancy Spero (1926–2009), and Mary Beth Edelson (b. 1933), who
drew heavily on female genital imagery or the figure of Gaia, the ancestral
mother of all life, for subject matter. Sullivan didn’t think of herself as a
feminist, or even as a woman artist, but as a human being working with
51
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
whatever capabilities she has. 2 As she explained in a talk at the National

Gallery of Canada in 1993, “I never thought of refraining from doing
something because I was a woman; I just did it.”3
AN ARTIST OF MANY PRACTICES

Few artists have worked across as many media platforms as Sullivan has;
she was a pioneer in how she moved so freely from one discipline to
another. As a teenager she studied painting at the École des beaux-arts
in Montreal from 1940 to 1945; pursued a very successful dance career as
a young woman; became a renowned sculptor after the birth of her
children; practised conceptual and performance art throughout the
1970s; and then finally returned to one of her first loves, painting,
in 1979.
These varied mediums call for different skills and techniques, which
Sullivan honed, demonstrating dedication, focus, and boundless
creativity. But clear guiding threads weave in and out of all of her work
and show the growth of the artist over the span of her career. Sullivan’s
Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948, for example, an
Françoise Sullivan, c. 1965, photograph
improvised piece that allowed the dancer’s body to follow its impulses by George C. Fenyon, Dance Collection
and freely express emotions, was clearly influenced by the discussions Danse Archive, Toronto.
about automatism and creative freedom she had with Paul-Émile Borduas
(1905–1960) in the early 1940s. Her sculptures, whether they were assembled
from steel, as was Callooh Callay, 1967, or moulded from Plexiglas, as was Of
One (De une), 1968–69, seem to defy gravity, giving an impression of
movement and weightlessness, no doubt indebted to Sullivan’s dance training
and her understanding of movement in three-dimensional space. Sullivan’s
conceptual work, and particularly her walking performances such as Walk
between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts
Montréal), 1970, brings together body motion and a sculptural sensibility,
attuned to the environment in which it unfolds. And her later paintings draw
from all the artistic experiments she conducted throughout her career: the
Tondo paintings from 1980–82 incorporate three-dimensional elements,
monochromes from the Homages (Hommages) series made in 2002–03 rely on
improvisation and record the gestures the artist makes with her body as she
paints, while the Only Red series of 2016 draws from the methods of
conceptual art; Sullivan gave herself a simple task that she repeated, with
only slight variations from one work to the next, making each with a variety of
red paints.
52
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan, Only Red no. 2, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 152.5 x 183 cm, collection of the artist.
In a few instances, Sullivan’s ease in crossing from one medium to another

translated into interdisciplinarity; in these cases she made works that do not
belong to dance, sculpture, conceptual art, or painting but rather create
entirely new relations between them. She and Jeanne Renaud (b. 1928) were
indeed at the leading edge of interdisciplinary work when, in the 1948 Ross
House recital that featured eight choreographies by Sullivan and Renaud, they
brought together dance, music, poetry, and the visual arts in ways that had
rarely been seen before. 4 They integrated music by Pierre Mercure, Duke
Ellington, and Edith Piaf, with costumes and set designs by Automatiste
painter Jean-Paul Mousseau (1927–1991) and Surrealist poetry by Refus global
signatory Thérèse Renaud (1927–2005), read during the performance by
Automatiste poet Claude Gauvreau (1925–1971). In 1979, in a Happening
titled Accumulation that took place at the Ferrare museum in Italy, Sullivan
moved stones that blocked a door and arranged them into a large circle while
Paul-André Fortier, Daniel Soulières, Daniel Léveillé, Michèle Febvre,
and Ginette Laurin were dancing in it. Laurin performed Daedalus (Dédale), a
choreography first danced by Sullivan at the Ross House recital in 1948. And in
1993, she choreographed I Speak (Je parle) for a retrospective exhibition titled
Françoise Sullivan at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, during
which Ginette Boutin, clothed in one of Sullivan’s Tondo paintings, swirled,
53
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
with the canvas rising and falling according to the speed of her rotation. As the
dancer spun, she called out, “I speak the pine, the fir, the poplar … I speak the
path of dawn … I speak the hand of the wind … I speak the night made with
the raven …”5 and so on. These unclassifiable works are all fusions of visual
art, dance, and poetry, and they encourage viewers to let go of their
expectations of art and its time-honoured disciplinary traditions.
Ginette Boutin performing En face de moi, a choreography by Françoise Sullivan, during the Françoise Sullivan exhibition at the Musée
national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, in March 1993, photographer unknown. Boutin also performed a similar piece titled I
Speak (Je parle), from 1993, at the Galerie de l’UQAM in 2017.
While art critics did not pay as much attention to these practices as they did to
more established genres such as painting, Sullivan’s innovative approach to art
making and her readiness to cross disciplinary borders has nevertheless
influenced a new generation of Canadian artists who gained knowledge about
her work through photographic documentation, the texts she wrote, and
retrospective exhibitions of her work. Among these are painter Monique
Régimbald-Zeiber (b. 1947), who feels a particular kinship with Sullivan’s
multifarious practice; painter Lise Boisseau (b. 1956), who created a series of
ink drawings inspired by Sullivan’s choreographies; dancer and visual artist Lise
Gagnon (b. 1962), whose video titled Elegy: The Dance in the Snow (Élégie: La
danse dans la neige), 2015, constitutes an homage to Sullivan; and
performance and installation artist Luis Jacob (b. 1970), who also revisited
Sullivan’s Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948, in a very personal
manner in his 2007 multi-channel video installation, A Dance for Those
of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, presented at Documenta 12 in
Kassel, Germany.
54
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
UNLEASHING CREATIVE FORCES

An interest in the art of non-European peoples was prevalent in European
and North American artistic circles during the first half of the twentieth
century, and it influenced the work of Cubists, Expressionists, Surrealists,
and many others. The word “primitivism” was used as a catch-all term
for the appropriation by formally trained artists of motifs, techniques, or
composition from African, Asian, or other non-European artistic
traditions. It implied that these artists tapped into primal energy and
emotions, unmediated by modern society or by their own training
and culture.
Sullivan acquainted herself with this trend while studying at the École des
beaux-arts in the early 1940s. Dissatisfied with the academic training she
was receiving, she became interested in French modernist painting, in Françoise Sullivan, Amerindian Head I
(Tête amérindienne I), 1941, oil on board,
particular that of Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), Henri Matisse (1869–1954), 30 x 28.5 cm, collection of the artist.
and the Fauves, who looked to African and Japanese art for inspiration. In
some of her earliest paintings, Amerindian Head I (Tête amérindienne I), 1941,
and Amerindian Head II (Tête amérindienne II), 1941, Sullivan borrowed their
coarse brush stroke and unconventional use of colour to depict her subjects in
a way that emphasized their Otherness.
Automatism, influenced by
Freudian conceptions of free
association and of the
unconscious, was meant to unleash
subjectivity and allow artists to
reach toward a truer, original self.
Sullivan’s grasp of theories of the
unconscious as they relate to the
“primitive” further developed
through her contact with Franziska
Boas (1902–1988), with whom
LEFT: Lisette Model, Pearl Primus, New York, 1943, gelatin silver print, 43.3 x 35.4 cm,
Sullivan studied dance in New York National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. RIGHT: Barbara Morgan, Martha Graham, Letter to
during the 1940s. Boas organized the World (Kick), 1940, gelatin silver print, 38.6 x 48.2 cm, National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa.
anthropology seminars for her
students, to encourage them to
learn more about dance in different cultures. She also introduced them to non-
European music as she beat out rhythms on the instruments she had collected
from around the world. In this context, Sullivan and her cohort read the
writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. Jung was extremely influential
in New York artistic circles at that time, in particular for his understanding of
archetypes—universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the
collective unconscious. Jungian psychoanalysis marked the production of
Abstract Expressionist painters such as Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) and Mark
Rothko (1903–1970), as well as that of dancers and choreographers such as
Boas, Martha Graham (1894–1991), Pearl Primus (1919–1994), and Merce
Cunningham (1919–2009), who in turn became models for Sullivan. As she
recalled, “We thought that studying ‘primitive people’ could help find new
things to say as a choreographer.”6
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
In Sullivan’s dance work, improvisation served the purpose of tapping into the
collective unconscious, and choreographies such as Daedalus (Dédale), 1948,
Hierophany (Hiérophanie), 1978, and Labyrinth (Labyrinthe), 1981, culminate in
dancers frenetically spiralling in a way that echoes ritual dancing. The spiral is
an archetype, in Jungian terms. It is a symbol of perpetual return to the origins
and transcending of self. It reappears in various media throughout Sullivan’s
career, sometimes modified into a circle, a coil, a labyrinth, or a cycle. It is most
explicitly seen in her spiral Plexiglas sculptures, the circular accumulations of
stone she created in Greece in the 1970s, her 1981 print series titled Labyrinth,
and her round paintings of the Cretan Cycle, 1983–85, populated with
mythological figures inspired by her visits to archaeological sites.
Rehearsal of Françoise Sullivan’s choreography Labyrinth (Labyrinthe), 1981, photographer unknown, archive of the artist. From left:
Daniel Soulières, Daniel Léveillé, and Ginette Laurin.
In her 1948 essay “La danse et l’espoir” (“Dance and Hope”), Sullivan reflects on
how the primal energy that ancient and Indigenous cultures valued could give
art a new breath and fuel a challenge to established rules, both of the academy
and of society. But Sullivan also understood the futility of reproducing
expressive forms created by other societies. For her, it seemed necessary to
invent new ones, ones capable of channelling creative energy in a way that was
intelligible to a contemporary public. As she explained: “It must be clearly
understood that the dancer does not choose a type of dance; this is not a
question of ethnology, but of contemporary life. Art can only flourish if it
grows from problems which concern the age, and is always pushed in the
direction of the unknown.”7
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
MANIFESTOS AND WRITINGS ABOUT ART

Several artists’ manifestos were written in Quebec in the twentieth century. 8
The most famous and controversial is without doubt Refus global (Total
Refusal), launched in Montreal on August 9, 1948. Sixteen artists known as the
Automatistes9 signed the manifesto that completely rejected the social,
artistic, and psychological values and norms of Quebec society and proposed
that social and individual emancipation could be attained through creativity
and openness to the unconscious: “Let those moved by the spirit of this
adventure join us. Within a foreseeable future, men will cast off their useless
chains. They will realize their full, individual potential according to the
unpredictable, necessary order of spontaneity—in splendid anarchy.”10
Refus global caused an uproar in

Quebec society. Paul-Émile
Borduas, leader of the
Automatistes, lost his teaching job
and several of the other signatories
left the country to pursue their
careers elsewhere. It is now
considered a pivotal text that
contributed significantly to how
Quebec entered cultural and social
modernity.
Françoise Sullivan did more than

sign Refus global; she contributed LEFT: The table of contents of the Refus global manifesto, 1948. RIGHT: A page from
Sullivan’s essay “La danse et l’espoir” (“Dance and Hope”), published in Refus global,
a text to be published with it. “La
1948.
danse et l’espoir” (“Dance and
Hope”) explains her conception of
modern dance, and her belief that it can inspire personal freedom and
awareness of one’s environment. Throughout her career, Sullivan published
writings that described her work, her influences, and her understanding of the
role art could play in contemporary society. In her first, “La peinture féminine”
(1943), she discusses recent and contemporary painting by women; in “Je
précise” (1978), she reflects on her earlier dance work; in “Salue Zarathoustra”
(2001), she insists on the individual nature of the artistic process. She
integrated short texts and poems into exhibition catalogues and made others
available during exhibitions. Sullivan also spoke at public events. A talk on the
subject of conceptual practices she gave at the Université du Québec in April
1975, during which she explained why contemporary artists were then turning
away from the making of objects to better focus on thought process, is now
considered a key moment in the history of Quebec art.
As art historian Rose-Marie Arbour has pointed out, writing by female artists,
particularly those working in non-traditional media, played a crucial role in the
early twentieth century. 11 This is because art criticism tended to favour
painting, and the work of male artists. Without Sullivan’s writings, many of her
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
ideas and the significance of her earlier works would have been lost. But for
Sullivan, writing was not simply a way to document or explain her art practice;
it was another way of exploring creativity and communicating. 12
DOCUMENTING AND RECREATING ARTWORKS

When, in 1947, Françoise Sullivan set out to create an improvised dance cycle
based on the seasons, she knew she needed to innovate by documenting it in
a new way. Traditional notation systems used for dance choreography were
not appropriate for improvisation, and she wanted to leave a record of the
ephemeral event that was to occur without an audience.
Summer (L’été) was danced at Les

Escoumins in the Côte-Nord
region of Quebec in the summer of
1947. It was captured by Sullivan’s
mother with a 16mm camera, a
technology that had been around
since the mid-1920s but had not
yet made its way into the art world
in a substantial way. 13 Dance in
the Snow (Danse dans la neige) was
performed in February 1948
outside the town of Otterburn
Park, southeast of Montreal.
Sullivan had arranged with Jean-
Paul Riopelle (1923–2002) to film
the event, using the Sullivan family
camera. It was only by chance that
Maurice Perron (1924–1999)
happened to be there. Perron had
studied at the École du meuble
with Riopelle and was part of the
Automatiste group, whose
members he photographed Françoise Sullivan, Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948, image from the
album Danse dans la neige, published by Françoise Sullivan in fifty copies, S.l. Images
frequently as they enjoyed social Ouareau (1977).
events or worked in their studios.
Standing shoulder to shoulder with Riopelle, he took stills of the dance.
Unfortunately, the film reels shot by Sullivan’s mother and by Riopelle have
been lost. Perron’s beautiful photographs remain the only record.
Nearly thirty years later, Sullivan chose seventeen images shot by Perron in
1948 to represent Dance in the Snow in a 1978 solo exhibition at the Musée
d’art contemporain de Montréal and for a limited-edition loose-leaf portfolio
published for the occasion. Aware of how documentation can influence
reception and the historical understanding of art, she selected the pictures for
how they synthesized the energy and flow of the dance, arranging them to
reflect the sequence of movements as they had occurred. Perron exhibited the
photographs several times, changing their order and adding more original
58
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
stills to the series. This difference in how Sullivan and Perron presented the
photographs highlights the double role that the images play, as
documentation of Sullivan’s performance and as artworks in their own right.
Following this early experiment,

Sullivan made it a habit to record
her work. She documented her
point of view with a camera as she
crossed the city in a performance
titled Walk between the Museum of
Contemporary Art and the Museum
of Fine Arts (Promenade entre le
Musée d’art contemporain et le
Musée des beaux-arts de
Montréal), 1970, and, when she
didn’t do it herself, she asked LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Walk between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the
Museum of Fine Arts (Promenade entre le Musée d’art contemporain et le Musée des
friends to film and take pictures of beaux-arts de Montréal), 1970, gelatin silver print, 26.6 x 26.6 cm, Montreal Museum of
her 1970s Happenings that Fine Arts. This series includes thirty-two photographs of various sights encountered by
the artist during her walk and a map of her trajectory. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Walk
resulted in accumulations of stone between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts (Promenade
and other found materials. The entre le Musée d’art contemporain et le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal), 1970,
gelatin silver print, 26.6 x 26.6 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
stills were later exhibited, and
some found their way into museum
collections. The artist’s careful selection of the documents to be shown
allowed her to control her image herself and manage, to a certain degree, how
her works would be received by critics and by the public. In the second half of
the twentieth century, many Canadian artists, such as Tanya Mars (b. 1948),
Istvan Kantor (b. 1949), and Johanna Householder (b. 1949), experimenting
with time-based or conceptual art practices, took up the same habit.
The documentation of Sullivan’s performances is of critical importance to her

body of work as a whole, since it often constituted the only experience the
public could have of a piece, and sometimes generated subsequent artworks.
The photographs taken in 1973, for example, to record Walk among Oil
Refineries (Promenade parmi les raffineries de pétrole), found their way a year
later into a 1974 photomontage titled Encounter with Archaic Apollo
(Rencontre avec Apollon archaïque). But the clearest case in point is The
Seasons of Sullivan (Les saisons Sullivan), 2007, a film with four parts
accompanied by a limited-edition photographic portfolio. 14 The project,
initiated by Louise Déry, director of the Galerie de l’UQAM, was meant to
complete and give a second life to Sullivan’s ambitious 1947–48 dance cycle.
Sullivan had performed summer and winter, but the planned improvisations on
the themes of fall and spring never occurred. Sixty years later, working from
memory and from Perron’s photographs, she choreographed all four dances
and hired dancers to perform them. These were in turn photographed by
Marion Landry (b. 1974) and documented in four short films, co-directed by
painter and videographer Mario Côté (b. 1954) and Sullivan, that are also
artworks in their own rights. 15
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan, Les Saisons Sullivan, details of spring, summer, and autumn, 1947–2007, four choreographies and four drawings by
Françoise Sullivan, sixty-seven digital black and white prints by Marion Landry, each: 30.5 x 30.5 cm. Interpretations by Andrée-Maude
Côté (spring), Annik Hamel (summer), Louise Bédard (autumn), and Ginette Boutin (winter).
If some spontaneity was necessarily lost in the 2007 recreation, what was truly
important for Sullivan was that the spirit of the piece, the relationship between
the dancer and her environment, be as close as possible to the original. 16 The
preservation through film of Sullivan’s dance work is an ongoing project. In
2008 Mario Côté recreated Daedalus (Dédale), 1948, and, in 2015 Black and
Tan, 1948,17 interpreted by Ginette Boutin. The reactualizations of the two
choreographies created and performed by Sullivan in 1948 in the recital she
organized with Jeanne Renaud at Ross House were based on photographs,
choreographic notes, and discussions with Sullivan, who worked with the
dancers.
If, through filmed re-enactment, these works can now be appreciated, Dance in
the Snow was given a new lease on life when Luis Jacob (b. 1970) appropriated
it in 2007 as the inspiration for a multi-channel video installation. A Dance for
Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice pays homage to the seminal 1948
performance in a way that also allows it to speak to gender, cultural diversity,
and other artistic concerns that are crucial to many artists of Jacob’s
generation.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Luis Jacob, A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, Based on the Choreography of Françoise Sullivan and the
Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth (with Sign-Language Supplement), 2007, three-channel video installation, 426 x 365 x 240 cm.
Installation view at Documenta 12, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany.
61
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan achieved recognition as a dancer, sculptor,

conceptual artist, performance artist, and painter. She pursued formal
training in most of these areas but also continued throughout her
career to develop her practice in response to encounters with
important artists of her day, and also through her travels and
friendships. Her openness to new ideas and her willingness to
experiment have helped make Sullivan one of the most enduring and
innovative artists working in Canada.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
DANCE
Françoise Sullivan started taking
classical dance lessons at the age
of eight. Her teacher, Gérald
Crevier (1912–1993), encouraged
her, along with his other most
talented pupils, by taking them to
see the Ballets Russes when the
troupe stopped in Montreal during
its North American tours. During
these early years, Sullivan and her
friends lived and breathed dance,
regularly putting together recitals
for the neighbourhood children.
Sullivan attended the École des

LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Gérald Crevier, and Marie-Paule Crevier, 1940, photographer
beaux-arts in Montreal from 1940 unknown, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. RIGHT: Shefler’s Springtime Revue
to 1945, focusing on painting. In at His Majesty’s Theatre in Montreal, April 27, 1934, photograph by Ashton and Doucet,
Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. Sullivan is second from the left.
spite of her success at the École,
she temporarily put painting aside
after graduating, and she decided to concentrate on dance. She had become
familiar with modern themes and techniques in art through her encounters
with painters such as Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960), Alfred Pellan (1906–
1988), and Fernand Léger (1881–1955). Now she sought to transfer what she
had learned into movement, drawing in particular from the discussions she had
had with the Automatiste group about overcoming the gap between mind and
body and expressing feelings in a way that was as direct, as unmediated as
possible. But there were no established modern dance schools or troupes in
Quebec at that time, and in 1945 Sullivan moved to New York to follow
her passion. 1
There she took classes from several prominent dancers, including Hanya
Holm (1893–1992), Martha Graham (1894–1991), Pearl Primus (1919–1994),
and La Meri (1899–1988), and the choreographer Louis Horst (1884–1964). But
her most important mentor was Franziska Boas (1902–1988). Boas favoured
improvisation as a pedagogical tool; she would pick up a drum or other exotic
instrument from her vast collection to mark rhythms and encourage her
students to move spontaneously. This approach, diametrically opposed to
classical training, was designed to free the body and allow it to follow its own
impulses. Sullivan studied with Boas for two years and became a charter
member of the groundbreaking, if short-lived, interracial company, the Boas
Dance Group (1945–46).
After Sullivan returned to Montreal, she and her friend Jeanne Renaud
(b. 1928) performed their first modern dance recital in 1948. It included
Daedalus (Dédale), Black and Tan, and Duality (Dualité), works in which the
dancers shunned classical dance movements and explored simple expressive
gestures born out of improvisation exercises. Sullivan soon made a name for
herself as an innovative and prolific choreographer, and in the 1950s she
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
benefited from the early days of television by creating choreographies for

Concert Hour (L’heure du concert), a classical music television program that
aired in English on CBC Television and in French on Radio-Canada from 1954
to 1958.
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan and Jeanne Renaud in Duality (Dualité), 1948, photograph by Arthur Renaud, Bibliothèque de la danse Vincent-
Warren, Montreal. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan in the CBC production of Monteverdi’s Le Combat, featuring a choreography by Sullivan,
1953, photographer unknown.
Sullivan’s best-known dance project remains Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la
neige), created in February 1948 outside the town of Otterburn Park, southeast
of Montreal. It was planned as a component of a cycle representing the four
seasons. In each segment of the overall project, Sullivan intended to improvise
a dance in nature, interacting with the elements. The first of the four, Summer
(L’été), was danced in June 1947 on a beach strewn with pink granite boulders
that reached into the sea at Les Escoumins in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec.
In a bright red bathing suit, Sullivan jumped from rock to rock, let herself be
animated by the wind, and finally disappeared over the hills. The winter dance,
Dance in the Snow, was a dialogue with snow, performed in silence except for
the crunching of Sullivan’s steps on the brittle surface. Spring was meant to be
danced in the morning rain in Old Montreal, and fall in a forest among fallen
leaves, but these seasons were not realized at the time. 2 Scheduling was tricky,
always dependent on favourable weather, and Sullivan had begun to turn her
attention to new projects.
Throughout her later career, Sullivan continued to dance and choreograph

when opportunities arose, and she had a strong impact on a new generation
of dancers and choreographers, including Paul-André Fortier (b. 1948), Robin
Poitras (dates unavailable), Daniel Léveillé (b. 1952), Manon Levac (b. 1958),
and Ginette Laurin (b. 1955). Her practice was always marked by
improvisational techniques, sweeping and unrestricted gestures, and
the use of the whole body, including the face, to express emotions.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
LEFT: Ginette Boutin in Black and Tan, 1992, a choreography by Françoise Sullivan, photographer unknown. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, I
Speak (Je parle), 1993, choreography, text, and painted tondo, performed by Ginette Boutin during the opening of the exhibition
Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires resplendissantes, January 10, 2017, at Galerie de l’UQAM, photograph by Isadora Chicoine-Marinier.
Dance was arguably the medium in which the Automatiste movement was most
fulfilled, by breaking the duality between mind and body and giving free rein
to raw energy. As Sullivan explained in “La danse et l’espoir” (“Dance and
Hope”), the 1948 essay that was included in the Refus global (Total Refusal)
manifesto, “The dancer must liberate the energies of his body.… He can do so
by putting himself in a state of receptivity similar to that of a medium.”3
Françoise Sullivan, Notations of a Choreography (Notations d'une chorégraphie), 1948, eight sketches on paper, each: 64 x 83.4 cm,
collection of the artist.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
SCULPTURE
Françoise Sullivan began sculpting because it afforded her the opportunity to
work in close proximity to her children. She and husband Paterson Ewen
(1925–2002) had their first son in 1950, and three more boys followed over the
decade. Sullivan set up a studio in the family’s garage in 1959, and started
experimenting with clay and metal.
Sullivan’s friend Jeanne Renaud

(b. 1928), a dancer and
choreographer, often asked avant-
garde artists to design sets for her
recitals. One day Sullivan
accompanied Renaud on a visit to
sculptor Armand Vaillancourt’s
(b. 1929) studio. Sullivan was
immediately fascinated by the
large sculptures and heaps of
metal scraps crowding the
workplace. At that first meeting,
Vaillancourt took a few minutes to
give her a demonstration of how
he worked. He showed her the LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Sculpture to See Through no. 5 (Sculpture pour voir au travers
no. 5), 1965, painted steel, height: 163 cm, collection of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise
rudiments of arc welding and how
Sullivan, The Progress of Cruelty (Le progrès de la cruauté), 1964, steel,
to cut metal with a blowtorch. He 131.5 x 67 x 45.5 cm, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
then placed a welding helmet on
her head, inviting her to experiment. While Renaud and Vaillancourt discussed
their collaboration, Sullivan managed to produce two small works. 4 In 1960
she registered as a part-time student at the École des beaux-arts to learn more,
and took a sculpture course from Louis Archambault (1915–2003), a Quebec
artist influenced by Surrealism. To further hone her skills, Sullivan took welding
lessons designed for plumbers and construction workers at the École des
métiers in Lachine.
Sullivan liked the corporeality of sculpture, which reminded her of dance:

“Sculpture, for me, was a physical thing. It followed the Automatiste
thought.”5 And her first efforts highlight the physical engagement sculpture
relies on, as well as the materiality of the medium: she folded metal shapes and
welded them together, leaving the joints visible. In Concentric Fall (Chute
concentrique), 1962, and in The Progress of Cruelty (Le progrès de la cruauté),
1964, for example, she managed to preserve the rawness of metal while
making the industrial material look surprisingly light and infused with energy.
The effect results from the interplay between matter and negative space, and
the contrast between stability and asymmetry, showing a keen understanding
of three-dimensional space on the part of the artist. Even after 1964, when
Sullivan started painting sculptures such as Callooh Callay, 1967, and Aeris
Ludus, 1967, in bright colours, the process of cutting, bending, and assembling
continued to show through.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Through the 1960s Sullivan created large-scale installations that served as

dynamic sets for dance works by Jeanne Renaud and Françoise Riopelle
(b. 1927). In 1965, for Curtain (Rideau), choreographed by Renaud, Sullivan
conceived a screen of suspended metal pieces that dancers knocked against
each other to create a soundscape. In 1967, for the set for Centre-Momentum
(Centre-Élan) by Le Groupe de la Place Royale, Quebec’s first modern dance
troupe that was under the artistic direction of Renaud, Sullivan ingeniously
integrated tires on which the dancers climbed and swung.
Rien, 1966, stage design for the choreography Centre-Momentum (Centre-Élan) by Jeanne Renaud and Peter Boneham, Théâtre
Maisonneuve, Montreal, archive of the artist.
By the mid-1960s malleable synthetic materials such as Plexiglas afforded a

range of new possibilities for creators. The move to plastic, increasingly used
to make furniture, toys, and household goods, seemed natural for Sullivan,
who wanted to integrate the art objects she created into the everyday. As she
explained, “Sculpture is the concrete and rigorous expression of my evolving
grasp of the atmosphere and tone of our time.”6
Working with plastic required a whole new set of techniques. Sullivan had
heard that the owner of Hickey Plastics, a company specializing in the
production of plastic housewares and gift items, appreciated art. She
contacted him and was soon allowed on the factory floor, where she observed
employees crafting their products and started to experiment with materials and
tools, getting tips from the workers she rubbed shoulders with.
67
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Untitled (Colourful Wave) (Sans titre [Onde colorée]), c. 1966–67, acrylic, each piece: 23 x 4 x 14 cm, collection
of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Untitled, 1968, Plexiglas, 30.6 x 23.4 x 11 cm, photograph by Richard-Max Tremblay, Musée d’art
While her first untitled Plexiglas sculptures made use of vibrant colours, with
works such as Of One (De une), 1968–69, Sullivan soon moved to translucent
plastics that could best evoke weightlessness. Surprisingly, Sullivan’s use of
industrial materials and processes never eradicated a sense of the human
touch. The sensuality that characterized her dance performances was always
present in the shapes and the dynamism of her sculptures.
CONCEPTUAL AND PERFORMANCE ART

The 1970s was a period of experimentation for Françoise Sullivan, as for many
artists of her generation. One of the preoccupations they shared was the
commodification of art and what they considered to be its senseless
accumulation in institutions. As Sullivan explained in 1973, “I have in my heart
a great love for art, but I am uncomfortable when I say that word. The artist
devotes his life to doing a job that is becoming impossible. Our world is
saturated with art objects. What should he do then?”7 Reading Hal Foster
(b. 1955) and others, it seemed to Sullivan that the art world was falling apart.
Sullivan defined conceptual art as a “mental approach on the part of the artist.”
For her, “the means and materials by which [artists] concretize this approach
[are] of secondary importance. This attitude gives priority to attitude over
achievement.”8 This experimental position gave her the latitude to freely
explore photography, photomontage, writing, and performance art. She also
showed personal mementoes and notebooks from a recent trip to Italy, as well
as her bodily fluids, at Galerie III in Montreal in 1973, in an exhibition simply
titled Françoise Sullivan. 9 In her work in all these media, she highlighted the
poetry that traverses everyday life, the blurring of the lines between art, life,
and dream, and the ways archetypes and myths still find echoes in modern
concerns. She did this most vividly with her use of archetypal forms, such as
the circle in her performance work, and with her integration of figures from
Greek mythology in her photomontages.
68
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Some of Sullivan’s best-known works from the period are performances. They
belong to what Allan Kaprow (1927–2006), a pioneer in establishing the
concepts of performance art, had described in the early 1960s as Happenings,
art events that did not fit in the established traditions of visual arts, theatre, or
dance but nevertheless allowed artists to experiment with body motion,
sounds, the environment, and written and spoken texts, as well as to interact
with other performers or the public. Sullivan’s first performances consist of
loosely scripted walks that were documented photographically. In 1970 she
walked from the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal to the Musée des
beaux-arts de Montréal. As she strolled she took pictures of what she saw. In
1973 she had herself photographed as she explored an industrial park
populated with oil refineries in Montreal’s east end. In 1976 she created a
guided walk for the public through Montreal’s cultural past, involving
exhibition cases and panels she had placed on the sidewalks. And in 1979
she produced Choreography for Five Dancers and Five Automobiles
(Chorégraphie pour cinq danseuses et cinq automobiles), a piece to be walked
and danced, and during which five performers and five automobiles interacted
in Old Montreal.
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan during the performance Walk among the Oil Refineries (Promenade parmi les raffineries de pétrole), 1973,
photograph by Alex Neumann. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan, Choreography for Five Dancers and Five Automobiles (Chorégraphie pour cinq
danseuses et cinq automobiles), performed in Old Montreal in 1979, photograph by David Moore, archive of the artist.
Around 1971, inspired by a dream of being shut out of her own home, Sullivan
began to photograph doors and windows in condemned buildings. While in
Italy and Greece, she created photomontages of suburban houses and phone
booths filled with large stones. During a trip to Ireland, Sullivan embarked on a
series of intensely physical performances in which she painstakingly moved
stones of different sizes to block and unblock doors and windows (Blocked and
Unblocked Window [Fenêtre bloquée et débloquée], 1978). This was a
reference to a social history in Ireland, when British lords applied a housing tax
on a home’s number of apertures and the Irish resisted by blocking their
windows and doors. In 1979, in a Happening titled Accumulation that took
place at the Ferrare museum in Italy, she cleared a doorway by removing the
stones that blocked it, arranging them into a large circle in an open space.
Meanwhile, inside the museum, a young woman was dancing Daedalus
69
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
(Dédale), Sullivan’s choreography from 1948. She also made works that
integrated the ruins at Delphi, in Greece, using them as a material more than as
a backdrop: for example, in Shadow (Ombre), 1979, she had herself
photographed by David Moore (b. 1943) as she walked through them, creating
shadows with her body on the wide expanses of stones.
The same ideas recur in many of these works in a variety of mediums, and the
line between performance and documentation blurs. At this point in her career,
the medium was secondary for Sullivan: “What really counted was the idea.”10
LEFT: Handprints (Empreintes), 2015, instruction of Paul-André Fortier performed by Françoise Sullivan during the opening of the
exhibition do it Montreal, Galerie de l’UQAM, January 12, 2016, Montreal, photograph by David Ospina. RIGHT: Handprints
(Empreintes), 2015, instruction of Paul-André Fortier performed by Françoise Sullivan during the opening of the exhibition do it
Montreal, Galerie de l’UQAM, January 12, 2016, Montreal, photograph by L-P Côté.
PAINTING
As a child Françoise Sullivan loved painting and regarded it as “the greatest of
all the arts.”11 That is why she chose to study painting when she enrolled at
the École des beaux-arts in 1940, but her academic training left her wanting
more. She was attracted to the European modernist works she saw in books
and at exhibitions, and she integrated broad brush strokes and a non-
naturalistic palette reminiscent of the work of Henri Matisse (1869–1954),
André Derain (1880–1954), and others into early paintings such as Amerindian
Head I (Tête amérindienne I), 1941, and Portrait of a Woman (Portrait de
femme), about 1945. Her meeting with Paul-Émile Borduas and the other
artists who would become the Automatistes also had an important impact on
her work. She never considered herself an Automatiste painter, however: “I
never managed to make Automatiste paintings. But I could do it with
dance.”12 She decided to pursue dance while she was young, hoping she
would return to painting one day.
70
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Sullivan did not pick up her brushes again until the late 1970s. The art world
was then focused on new types of practices, such as performance and
installation art, which Sullivan had been exploring for a decade. Going against
the current, she returned to her first love. “I chose to work in painting, with its
traditional materials, as a means of resistance, because this is the medium that
had been most denigrated over the past thirty years.”13
Françoise Sullivan, Blue Bloom, 2016, acrylic on canvas (diptych), 122 x 244 cm, collection of the artist.
Sullivan’s mature paintings bear the traces of her experience as a dancer,

sculptor, and performance artist. Organized in series, they highlight the
specific artistic issues Sullivan was working through at the time. The Tondo
Cycle, 1980–82, for example, consists of large circular canvases. By being
visibly cut up and reassembled, they emphasize the human labour needed to
make them. The Cretan Cycle (Cycle crétois), 1983–85, by its use of imaginary
figures with mythological overtones, reflects Sullivan’s ongoing interest in myth
and archetypes.
From the early 1990s, Sullivan’s painting gradually moved toward abstraction.
Series such as Reds (Rouges), 1997–2016, Homages (Hommages), 2002–03,
and Oceanic Series (Série océane), 2005–06, present monochromatic surfaces
that are animated by slight variations in hue and brush stroke, creating a
pulsating effect. In the series Edge, 2007; Games (Jeux), 2013–15; Proportio,
2015; and Bloom, 2015–16, interior subdivisions and relations between
asymmetrical fields create visual tension and drama while preserving a fragile
harmony. Sullivan approached the series Only Red, 2016, in much the way she
created conceptual art: she gave herself a simple task, making paintings from a
selection of reds, and developed it through repetition.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, Proportio-8 b, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 91.5 x 91.5 cm, collection of the artist. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan,
Proportio-7, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 152.5 x 152.5 cm, private collection.
Sullivan’s mastery of colour is remarkable. Her works in subtle camaïeu, or

those constructed from strident, idiosyncratic juxtapositions of colour fields,
appear to glow from within. For Sullivan, colour is pure emotion, meant to
resonate on a primal level. “I would like,” she explains, “to recover the vibration
that occurs in the instant when life is felt intensely, and provoke this sensation
of the self in a present and ephemeral moment.”14 This effect is reinforced by
Sullivan’s expressive brush strokes and her predilection for large-format
paintings that create an immersive viewing experience.
The greatest challenge that painters face with abstraction is to continuously

renew their work and create engaging surfaces without the help of
recognizable motifs. For Sullivan this means working through improvisation.
She never paints from sketches, but rather tries to generate a dialogue
between herself and the work. As she puts it, “The true satisfaction of art is
found at the level of experience. The work is constructed as it is being made, in
dialogue between the artist and the painting, between the brush stroke and
the form that emerges from the process.”15 With her dance training, Sullivan is
probably more aware than most other painters of the effect of her movement,
at once spontaneous and controlled, as she creates. This is one of the unique
characteristics of her paintings and an important source of their energy.
72
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan, Proportio-5, 2015, acrylic on canvas (diptych), 152.5 x 305 cm, collection of the artist.
73
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan’s works can be found in numerous public and

private collections across Canada. The largest public collections of her
work are in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Musée national
des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de
Montréal, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Additionally, the
Galerie de l’UQAM in Montreal often exhibits the artist’s work, as does
Galerie Simon Blais, by which she is represented. Archival and
documentary images of her early performances can be found at the
Dance Collection Danse Archive in Toronto, as well as at the Vincent-
Warren archives in Montreal, among others. Note that the works listed
below may not always be on view.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1-877-225-4246 or 416-979-6648
ago.net
Françoise Sullivan, Jean-Paul

(no. 4), from the series Homages,
2002–03
Acrylic on canvas
244.3 x 198.5 cm
BEAVERBROOK ART GALLERY

703 Queen Street
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
506-458-2028
beaverbrookartgallery.org
Françoise Sullivan, Cretan Cycle Françoise Sullivan, Cretan Cycle

2, no. 2 (Cycle crétois 2, no. 2), 2, no. 3 (Cycle crétois 2, no. 3)
1985 Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on canvas 150 x 183 cm
161 x 184 cm
75
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

1380 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
514-285-2000
mbam.qc.ca
Françoise Sullivan, Françoise Sullivan, Walk Françoise Sullivan, Françoise Sullivan, Reds
The Progress of Cruelty between the Museum Encounter with Archaic (Rouges), 2009–10
(Le progrès de la of Contemporary Art Apollo (Rencontre avec Acrylic on canvas
cruauté), 1964 and the Museum of Apollon archaïque), 198.4 x 396 cm
Steel Fine Arts (Promenade 1974
131.5 x 67 x 45.5 cm entre le Musée d’art Thirteen
contemporain et le photomontages on
Musée des beaux-arts gelatin silver print
de Montréal), 1970 15.5 x 22.9 cm (each)
Thirty-two gelatin silver
prints and a map
26.6 x 26.6 cm (each)
MUSÉE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTRÉAL

185 Saint Catherine Street West
514-847-6226
macm.org/en
Françoise Sullivan, Fall Françoise Sullivan, Françoise Sullivan,

in Red (Chute en Untitled, 1968 Spiral, 1969
rouge), 1966 Plexiglas Plexiglas
Painted steel 30.6 x 23.4 x 11 cm 65.5 x 31 x 35.4 cm
210.5 x 127 x 52 cm
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
MUSÉE NATIONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DU QUÉBEC

179 Grande Allée West
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
(418) 643-2150
mnbaq.org
Françoise Sullivan, Françoise Sullivan, Of Françoise Sullivan, Françoise Sullivan,

Concentric Fall (Chute One (De une), 1968–69 Tondo VIII, 1980 Cretan Cycle no. 13
concentrique), 1962 Plexiglas Acrylic on canvas and (Cycle crétois nº 13),
Steel 243.8 x 73.7 cm rope 1984
32.5 x 104 x 24 cm 287 x 298 cm Acrylic and collage on
canvas
201 x 242 cm
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

380 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
1-800-319-2787 or 613-990-1985
gallery.ca
Françoise Sullivan, Labyrinth

(Labyrinthe), 1981
Serigraph on wove paper, third
edition
50 x 65.5 cm
77
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
UNIVERSITY OF REGINA
3737 Wascana Parkway
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
(306) 585-4111
uregina.ca
Françoise Sullivan, Callooh

Callay, 1967
Painted steel
284.5 x 122 x 91 cm
UNIVERSITÉ DU QUEBEC À MONTRÉAL

Pavillon Président-Kennedy
201 President Kennedy Avenue
(514) 987-3000
carte.uqam.ca/pavillon-pk
Françoise Sullivan, Mountain

(Montagne), 1997
Three murals and four benches
made of granite
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
NOTES
BIOGRAPHY
1. Sullivan had met Pierre Gauvreau earlier, when she was fifteen, along with
Bruno Cormier. She considered them her first significant intellectual
encounter.
2. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Patricia Smart, Les Femmes du Refus global

(Montreal: Boréal, 1998), 70. “Il s’agissait de rompre avec les valeurs sociales.
Nous voulions bouleverser les règles établies […] Il fallait porter un grand coup
à notre société réactionnaire.”
3. Although Claude Gauvreau had used the word “automatism” in articles he

published in 1946 and 1947, it is Tancrède Marsil Jr. who is credited with
coining the term in an article titled “Les Automatistes: L’école Borduas,”
published in the Université de Montréal student newspaper Le Quartier Latin,
February 28, 1947, 4.
4. Françoise Sullivan, “La peinture féminine,” Le Quartier Latin, December 17,

1943, viii.
5. German dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Leese moved to Montreal in

1944, where she opened Quebec’s first modern ballet studio. From 1945 to
1957 the Elizabeth Leese Ballet performed in Montreal and across Canada.
6. She had originally tried to interest Pierre Matisse in presenting the works of
her Montreal friends at his gallery, without success.
7. In the nineteenth century, Quebecois cultural survival (survivance) in the face

of first British and later American domination was seen as dependent on three
factors: religion (Catholicism), language (French), and social institutions (many
of them controlled by the Catholic Church in various guises).
8. The Supreme Court of Canada struck down Quebec’s Loi du cadenas in

1957, declaring it to be an unconstitutional infringement on federal control of
the Criminal Code.
9. When Bourduas was dismissed from his position at the École du meuble
following the publication of the Refus global in 1948, Gauvreau’s letter to the
editor of Le Devoir explicitly criticized the way a public institution acted in
deference to Catholic ideology. The paper’s published editorial response is
telling: though the editorial acknowledged that the school was not
“technically” denominational, it argued that the assumed Catholicism of the
faculty and students created an expectation of “Christian morality.” Claude
Gauvreau, “Le renvoi de M. Borduas,” Le Devoir, September 28, 1948, 5,
included in Claude Gauvreau, Écrits sur l’art, ed. Gilles Lapointe and Philippe
Brosseau (Montreal: Hexagone, 1996), 134–38.
10. Sullivan taught at Montreal’s Ross House from 1947 to 1949.
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11. At the time, there was no tradition of modern dance criticism in Quebec.
The piece received deserved recognition forty years later, in 1988, when the
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal hosted a dance recital featuring the
reconstructed choreographic works by Sullivan and Renaud, performed by
dancers Louise Bédard and Ginette Boutin.
12. Françoise Sullivan, “Dance and Hope” in Paul-Émile Borduas et al., Total
Refusal: The Complete 1948 Manifesto of the Montreal Automatists, translated
and introduced by Ray Ellenwood (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1985), 103.
13. Sullivan quoted in Smart, Les Femmes du Refus global, 33. “À ce moment-
là, mon père était commissaire à la CÉCM, et il parlait toujours de moi avec
beaucoup de fierté. Un jour, le président de la Commission arrive avec Refus
global et lui dit: “C’est ça, ta fille?” “Ce soir-là, quand mon père est arrivé à la
maison avec le manifeste, ç’a été la tempête. Mais ma famille m’aimait assez
pour passer par-dessus.”
14. Sullivan quoted in Smart, Les Femmes du Refus global, 183–84. “Ce n’était
pas possible [de continuer à danser] parce que quand on danse, il faut
s’absenter pour les cours, les répétitions, les émissions à la télévision … Au
début, je me souviens, j’avais tout mon temps. Je jouais à la femme d’intérieur
et je trouvais ça amusant. Mais au bout de quelque temps, j’ai eu l’impression
d’avoir perdu mon identité, et je me suis affolée. J’ai senti la nécessité de
revenir à un travail, mais ce devait être un travail qui ne m’éloignerait pas de la
maison, qui me laisserait libre de décider de l’emploi de mon temps. Je ne
voulais pas me remettre à peindre parce que mon mari était peintre et je
trouvais que cet art lui appartenait. Alors je me suis mise à faire de la
sculpture.”
15. Sullivan quoted in Henry Lehmann, “Françoise Sullivan,” Vie des Arts, no. 78
(1975): 28–29. “Je reviens au point zéro, au silence. Je dois me défaire des
vielles formes de l’art qui ne correspondent plus, désormais, à notre réalité.”
16. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “Le processus long et
parfois ardu de faire des oeuvres me manquait. Puis j’avais toujours voulu
revenir à la peinture.”
17. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “C’est bien d’avoir une
idée pour commencer. Mais les meilleurs tableaux se font quand on est à
l’écoute.”
18. Françoise Sullivan quoted by Michelle Lasnier, “Les femmes peintres du

Québec,” Châtelaine, October 1962, 102. “Il faut que tout s’enchaîne, que seul
l’inévitable soit.”
KEY WORKS: AMERINDIAN HEAD I

1. The girl’s sister is the subject of Amerindian Head II (Tête amérindienne II),
1941. Conversation with the author, August 15, 2017. “Cétait une merveille
pour moi de pouvoir peintre cette petite fille et sa soeur.”
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
KEY WORKS: DANCE IN THE SNOW

1. In 2007 Sullivan renewed this project. Working from memory and from
Perron’s photographs, she choreographed all four dances and hired dancers to
perform them.
KEY WORKS: CALLOOH CALLAY

1. Yves Robillard, “Flâneurs de l’Expo, vous ne verrez pas la sculpture
canadienne à son meilleur!” La Presse (Montreal), May 27, 1967, 40. “Aucune
impression de pesanteur n’est ressentie à la vue de cette pièce.”
KEY WORKS: OF ONE

1. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “Cétait la sculpture la plus
minimale que je pouvais imaginer faire.”
KEY WORKS: PORTRAITS OF PEOPLE WHO RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER

1. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016.
KEY WORKS: LEGEND OF ARTISTS

1. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Claude Gosselin, Françoise Sullivan:
Rétrospective, exhibition catalogue (Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain,
1981), 49. “Je voulais que ce travail soit une étalage de l’œuvre de l’artiste en
même temps qu’un hommage à une pensée qui survit au temps … J’ai abordé
la chose d’une façon que je voulais humaine, profonde, presque proustienne.”
2. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Claude Gosselin, Françoise Sullivan:

Rétrospective, 49. “Corridart, ça sera toujours pour moi comme un affront.
J’avais perçu le projet comme un projet sérieux. J’y ai travaillé avec tout mon
cœur, comme si je rétablissais une chronique à travers le temps.”
KEY WORKS: ENCOUNTER WITH ARCHAIC APOLLO

1. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Musée du Québec, Françoise Sullivan,
exhibition catalogue (Quebec City: Musée du Québec, 1993), 24. “Je suis
bouleversée par le manque de discernement du monde face à notre belle et
unique planète … je dirais que, d’une certaine façon, c’est là le sujet latent
inscrit tout au long de mon œuvre.”
KEY WORKS: BLOCKED PHONE BOOTH

1. Françoise Sullivan and David Moore, Françoise Sullivan/David Moore
(Montreal: Véhicule Art, 1977), n.p.
KEY WORKS: MOUNTAIN

1. The policy adopted in 1961 by the government of Quebec requires that
roughly 1 per cent of the budget for construction or expansion of a
government building or public place be reserved for the commission or
purchase of artwork.
KEY WORKS: HOMAGE TO PATERSON

1. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “Parce qu’il était le plus
grand de tous les peintres.”
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SIGNIFICANCE & CRITICAL ISSUES

1. Françoise Sullivan, “La peinture féminine,” Le Quartier Latin, November 17,
1943, viii. “La peinture, sous son doigt de fée, se trouve transformé; on en est
loin de la peinture masculine, son art est de sensibilité différente.”
2. Conversation with the author, August 16, 2017.
3. “Untitled,” conference presented in the context of the exhibition “The Crisis

of Abstraction in Canada: The 1950s,” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,
1993. “Je n’ai jamais pensé ne pas faire quelque chose parce que j’étais une
femme; je le faisais tout simplement.”
4. Here, they were mainly inspired by the dance performances given by the
Ballets Russes, which showcased decors and costumes by artists such as Natalia
Goncharova (1881–1962), Henri Matisse (1869–1954), and Pablo Picasso
(1881–1973), but went one step further by integrating contemporary poetry
and choosing to work with emerging artists who collectively contested
established disciplinary traditions.
5. “Je parle le pin, le sapin, le peuplier … je parle le sentier de l’aube … je parle

la grande main du vent … je parle la nuit faite avec le corbeau.”
6. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Allana Lindgren, From Automatism to Modern

Dance: Françoise Sullivan with Franziska Boas in New York (Toronto: Dance
Collection Danse Press/es, 2003), 73.
7. Françoise Sullivan, “Dance and Hope,” in Paul-Émile Borduas et al., Total

and introduced by Ray Ellenwood (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1985), 116.
8. Artists have always written about art, but this trend increased significantly at
the beginning of the twentieth century when avant-garde artists across the
Western world began innovating radically with form, colour, and media, and
proposing new social and political roles art could fulfill. Manifestos and other
writings by artists served myriad purposes. They proclaimed originality and
distance from the past; they signified allegiances between artists; they
highlighted relationships between art and the theoretical thinking of fields
such as philosophy, anthropology, and mathematics; they documented recent
efforts; and they anchored those efforts in specific social contexts. In short,
they were written to explain, to the public, works and practices that might
otherwise remain inscrutable.
9. Although Claude Gauvreau used the word “automatism” in articles he

published in 1946 and 1947, it is Tancrède Marsil Jr. who is credited with
coining the term in an article titled “Les Automatistes: L’école Borduas,”
published in the Université de Montréal student newspaper Le Quartier Latin,
February 28, 1947, 4.
10. Paul-Émile Borduas, “Refus global,” in Paul-Émile Borduas et al., Total

Refusal, 41.
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11. Rose-Marie Arbour, “Identification de l’avant-garde et identité de l’artiste:

Les femmes et le groupe automatiste au Québec (1941–1948),” RACAR 21, 1–2
(1994): 7–21.
13. Notable examples of early uses of film in the arts include experimental films
by Hans Richter (1888–1976), Fernand Léger (1881–1955), and Marcel
Duchamp (1887–1968).
14. A facsimile of the limited-edition portfolio was published in 2010. Louise

Déry, Les saisons Sullivan/The Seasons of Sullivan (Montreal: Galerie de
l’UQAM, 2010).
15. These can be viewed on Mario Côté’s website at http://www.mario-

cote.ca/.
17. These can be viewed on Mario Côté’s website at http://www.mario-

cote.ca/. Daedalus and Black and Tan, along with other early choreographies
by Sullivan, were first reconstructed and filmed by Dance Collection Danse in
1986, but this was for teaching rather than artistic purposes.
STYLE & TECHNIQUE

1. German dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Leese moved to Montreal in
1944, where she opened Quebec’s first contemporary ballet studio. From 1945
to 1957 the Elizabeth Leese Ballet performed in Montreal and across Canada.
2. They were finally carried out in 2007 when, working from both memory and
photographs, Sullivan choreographed all four dances and hired dancers to
perform them as part of The Seasons of Sullivan (Les saisons Sullivan), a film in
four parts co-directed by Mario Côté and Françoise Sullivan and a limited-
edition portfolio featuring photographs of the dances by Marion Landry.
3. Françoise Sullivan, “Dance and Hope,” in Paul-Émile Borduas et al., Total

and introduced by Ray Ellenwood (Toronto, Exile Editions, 1985), 113.
4. Sullivan gave these works to Renaud.
5. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “La sculpture, pour moi,
c’était quelque chose de physique. Ça suivait la pensée automatiste.”
6. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Dorothy Cameron, Sculpture ’67 (Ottawa:

Queen’s Printer, 1968), 86. “La sculpture m’apparait comme l’expression
concrète et rigoureuse de ma saisie mobile de l’ambiance et le ton de
notre époque.”
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7. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Gilles Toupin, “La nostalgie de l’art,” La Presse

(Montreal), January 13, 1973, D-14. “J’ai un grand amour, au fond de moi-
même, pour l’art, mais je suis mal à l’aise quand je prononce ce mot là. L’artiste
consacre sa vie à faire un travail qui n’est presque plus possible. Notre monde
est saturé d’objets d’art. Que faut-il faire alors?”
8. “L’art conceptuel,” public conference at Université du Québec à Montréal,

April 10, 1975. “Démarche mentale de l’artiste illustrant le concept d’art.” “Les
moyens et les matériaux par lesquels [les artistes] concrétisent cette démarche
[n’a] qu’une importance secondaire. Cette attitude donne la priorité à l’attitude
sur la réalisation.”
9. The gallery door remained locked for the duration of the exhibition, and the
windows were covered with newspapers printed in many languages. The
artifacts displayed in the exhibition could be seen only through small holes in
the newspapers. Sullivan’s friend Jeanne Renaud was co-owner of Galerie III.
10. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “Ce qui comptait vraiment
c’était l’idée.”
11. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “Le plus grand de tous
les arts.”
12. Conversation with the author, October 13, 2016. “Je ne suis pas arrivée à
faire de la peinture automatiste. Mais en danse, j’y arrivais très bien.”
13. Françoise Sullivan, “Ma peinture est … ma peinture est” in Stéphane Aquin,
Françoise Sullivan, exposition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
(Montreal: Éditions Parachute, 2003), 42. “J’ai choisi la spécificité de la
peinture dans ses matériaux traditionnels comme position de résistance, parce
que c’est celle qui a été le plus durement dénigrée depuis plus de trente ans.”
14. Françoise Sullivan quoted in Stéphane Aquin, Françoise Sullivan, 19. “Je
voudrais retrouver la vibration de l’instant où on se sent vivre intensément, et
provoquer cette sensation de soi dans un moment présent et éphémère.”
15. Françoise Sullivan, “Ma peinture est … ma peinture est” in Stéphane Aquin,
Françoise Sullivan, 42. “La réelle satisfaction de l’art se retrouve au niveau de
l’expérience. L’oeuvre se construit en se faisant, dans le dialogue entre l’artiste
et la peinture, entre la touche et la forme qui se dégage à même le processus.”
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GLOSSARY
abstract art
Visual art that uses form, colour, line, and gestural marks in compositions that
do not attempt to represent images of real things. Abstract art may interpret
reality in an altered form, or depart from it entirely. Also called nonfigurative or
nonrepresentational art.
Abstract Expressionism
A style that flourished in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, defined by its
combination of formal abstraction and self-conscious expression. The term
describes a wide variety of work; among the most famous Abstract
Expressionists are Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and
Willem de Kooning.
academic tradition
Associated with the Royal Academies of Art established in France and England
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries respectively, the academic
tradition emphasized drawing, painting, and sculpture in a style highly
influenced by ancient classical art. Subject matter for painting was
hierarchically ranked, with history painting of religious, mythological,
allegorical, and historical figures holding the position of greatest importance,
followed, in order, by genre painting, portraiture, still lifes, and landscapes.
Archambault, Louis (Canadian, 1915–2003)

A significant figure in twentieth-century Canadian sculpture, whose numerous
public commissions can be found in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa.
Archambault also contributed to the Canadian pavilions at the Brussels World’s
Fair, 1958, and Expo 67, in Montreal. He was a signatory of the 1948 Prisme
d’yeux manifesto.
Arte Povera
An Italian avant-garde art movement spanning the late 1960s to the early
1970s. The term “arte povera,” meaning “impoverished art,” was established by
critic Germano Celant in 1967. The movement embraced the use of found and
humble materials and media such as sculpture, assemblage, and performance
art. Arte Povera reacted against the commercial, institutionalized gallery world
and American Minimalism by using both natural and industrial materials to
question the conflicts between past and present values. Major Arte Povera
artists include Giovanni Anselmo, Giuseppe Penone, and Michelangelo
Pistoletto.
automatism
A physiological term first applied to art by the Surrealists to refer to processes
such as free association and spontaneous, intuitive writing, drawing, and
painting that allow access to the subconscious without the interference of
planning or controlled thought.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Automatistes
A Montreal-based artists’ group interested in Surrealism and the Surrealist
technique of automatism. Centred on the artist, teacher, and theorist Paul-
Émile Borduas, the Automatistes exhibited regularly between 1946 and 1954,
making Montreal a locus of mid-century avant-garde art. Members included
Marcel Barbeau, Marcelle Ferron, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Jean-Paul Riopelle,
Fernand Leduc, and Françoise Sullivan.
Ballets Russes
A Paris-based ballet company formed by the Russian impresario Sergei
Diaghilev in 1909. Part of France’s early twentieth-century avant-garde, Ballets
Russes performed its first season in Paris; it later toured France and abroad,
influencing a resurgent interest in ballet. Productions were treated as
collaborations of artists from various disciplines. Georges Balanchine, Jean
Cocteau, Michel Fokine, Joan Miró, Anna Pavlova, Pablo Picasso, and Igor
Stravinsky were among the many dancers, choreographers, painters, and
composers associated with Ballets Russes, which disbanded in 1929.
Baudelaire, Charles (French, 1821–1867)

An influential poet and art critic who inspired the Symbolist movement and
reveled in the sensual contradictions between the ruins of urban life and
beauty, Baudelaire is perhaps best known for his 1857 poetry collection Les
fleurs du mal, which explored taboos of bourgeois values. He is associated with
philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin and the figures of the flâneur
and the bohemian.
Bethune, Norman (Canadian, 1890–1939)

A well-known physician and the inventor of several medical implements and
the “mobile medical unit,” Bethune was a social justice advocate for the poor in
Canada and an outspoken Communist. He engaged in international political
struggles, notably in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and in China during
the Sino-Japanese War.
Blake, William (British, 1757–1827)

A poet, visual artist, and mystical philosopher, considered a seminal figure of
the Romantic period. Deeply religious and unconventional, Blake was fervently
anti-rationalist and anti-materialist. Among his small circle of admirers were the
Ancients (a group of English artists) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Boas, Franziska (American, 1902–1988)

Notable dancer, teacher, and percussionist who pioneered the integration of
dance with activism, therapy, and anthropology. In 1933, in New York, Boas
founded the Boas School of Dance, one of the few racially integrated schools
at the time. She served as its director until 1949. Prominent students of the
Boas School include Françoise Sullivan, Merce Cunningham, and John Cage.
Forgoing technical perfection, Boas approached dance as socially, politically,
and emotionally driven.
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Bonnard, Pierre (French, 1867–1947)

A painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis, a group of French Post-
Impressionist artists who emerged in the late 1880s and maintained a distance
from the Parisian avant-garde. Bonnard often worked in a decorative mode
and with an Impressionist use of colour; he painted interior scenes and
landscapes, created posters and theatre sets, and designed household objects.
Borduas, Paul-Émile (Canadian, 1905–1960)

The leader of the avant-garde Automatistes and one of Canada’s most
important modern artists. Borduas was also an influential advocate for reform
in Quebec, calling for liberation from religious and narrow nationalist values in
the 1948 manifesto Refus global. (See Paul-Émile Borduas: Life & Work by
François-Marc Gagnon.)
Brancusi, Constantin (Romanian, 1876–1957)

An abstract sculptor, whose unique focus on expressing natural forms as simply
as possible influenced later sculptors, including Amedeo Modigliani and Carl
Andre. Active for most of his life in Paris, Brancusi became known in America
following his inclusion in the Armory Show, the 1913 International Exhibition of
Modern Art.
camaïeu
A monochromatic painting technique that employs two or three tints of one
colour to render an image without regard to the scene’s natural or realistic
colours. An ancient technique, camaïeu has been used in decorative arts,
friezes, and enamel work to simulate the appearance of relief sculpture.
Chagall, Marc (Russian/French, 1887–1985)

A painter and graphic artist, Chagall’s work is characterized by colourful,
dreamlike images and a defiance of the rules of pictorial logic. Although he
employed elements of Cubism, Fauvism, and Symbolism, Chagall did not
formally align with any avant-garde movement.
Champagne, Jean-Serge (Canadian, b. 1947)

Montreal-born sculptor known for working with raw, unvarnished wood and
pine planks in gesture-oriented processes. From 1966 to 1969 Champagne
studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal with Ulysse Comtois and
Henry Saxe. Champagne assisted Françoise Sullivan with the realization of her
work La légende des artistes for the major project Corridart, on Sherbrooke
Street, as part of the 1976 Olympic Games held in Montreal.
Chicago, Judy (American, b. 1939)

A painter, sculptor, and educator, and an important feminist artist and
intellectual. Chicago explores the role of women in art history and
contemporary culture. Her best-known work, The Dinner Party, 1974–79,
commemorates thirty-nine historically significant women with specially
designed place settings for each one at a vast triangular table.
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Conceptual art
Traced to the work of Marcel Duchamp but not codified until the 1960s,
“Conceptual art” is a general term for art that emphasizes ideas over form. The
finished product may even be physically transient, as with land art or
performance art.
Contemporary Arts Society

Founded in 1939 by John Lyman, this Montreal-based society promoted a non-
academic approach to modernist art and linked artistic culture in Quebec to
contemporary life. Early members included Stanley Cosgrove, Paul-Émile
Borduas, and Jack Humphrey.
Cormier, Bruno (Canadian, 1919–1991)

Psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and Automatiste poet, Cormier was a pioneer of
forensic psychiatry and clinical criminology in Canada. He was a signatory of
the 1948 artistic manifesto Refus global, which protested the rigid religious
and ideological traditions of Quebec. Cormier’s contribution, an article titled
“A Pictorial Work Is an Experiment and an Experience,” encouraged the
consideration of multiple fluid perspectives in approaching art, including that
of the artist as well as the viewer and interpreter.
Crevier, Gérald (Canadian, 1912–1993)

Dancer, teacher, and choreographer who founded the first official ballet
company in Quebec, Les Ballets-Québec, active from 1948 to 1951. During the
Second World War, Crevier was posted to England and studied with Phyllis
Bedells at London’s Royal Academy of Dance during his leaves. He taught in
Montreal at the Shefler School of Dancing, the Berkeley Hotel, and his own
studio, where his students included Aline Legris, Françoise Sullivan, and
Andrée Millaire.
Cubism
A radical style of painting developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in
Paris between 1907 and 1914, defined by the representation of numerous
perspectives at once. Cubism is considered crucial to the history of modern art
for its enormous international impact; famous practitioners also include Juan
Gris and Francis Picabia.
Derain, André (French, 1880–1954)

A painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer of theatre sets, Derain co-
founded the Fauvist movement, active from about 1905 to 1908. He is known
for the expressive characteristics typical of Fauvism, including the use of
vibrant and unrealistic colours (sometimes straight from the paint tube),
simplified forms, and raw canvas that showed in the final product. Derain’s
interest in African tribal masks likely influenced Pablo Picasso and Georges
Braque. His later works turn to a more conservative, Neoclassical style.
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Dominion Gallery of Fine Art

One of the foremost commercial galleries in Canada, the Dominion Gallery in
Montreal was founded in 1941 by Rose Millman. The gallery was purchased in
1947 by Max Stern, who became its major proponent and director for the next
forty years. The gallery promoted contemporary Canadian artists, both
established and emerging, and was the first in Canada to offer represented
artists a guaranteed annual income. The gallery closed in December 2000,
reopening in 2005.
École des beaux-arts de Montréal

The École des beaux-arts de Montréal was founded in 1922, the same year as
its sister institution, the École des beaux-arts de Québec. The curriculum
emphasized industrial arts, trades, and commercial design, but the school
gradually came into its own as an important training ground for painters,
sculptors, and other serious artists, culminating in what has been called its
“golden age” in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1969 it was absorbed into
the fine arts department of the Université du Québec à Montréal.
École du meuble
In 1930 the artist Jean-Marie Gauvreau established the École du meuble, which
trained its students in technical arts and drawing, painting, design, art history,
sculpture, and even law. Many of Quebec’s future avant-garde artists, including
Paul-Émile Borduas, Marcel Barbeau, Maurice Perron, and other signatories of
the Refus global (1948), taught or received their training here.
Ewen, Paterson (Canadian, 1925–2002)

Born in Montreal and later settling in London, Ontario, Ewen was involved with
the Automatistes, the Plasticiens, and the London Regionalists, although he
was never fully identified with a single movement. His mature works embraced
experimentation with colour combinations and textures, and the use of
gouged plywood as a painting surface. These invoked landscape and natural
elements through abstract and geometric gestures. (See Paterson Ewen: Life &
Work by John Hatch.)
Expressionism
An intense, emotional style of art that values the representation of the artist’s
subjective inner feelings and ideas. German Expressionism started in the early
twentieth century in Germany and Austria. In painting, Expressionism is
associated with an intense, jarring use of colour and brush strokes that are not
naturalistic.
Exquisite Corpse
A collaborative method of creating a work, invented by the Surrealists. A
participant draws on a sheet of paper, folds it to conceal the illustration, and
passes it to the next player to extend the drawing. André Breton wrote that the
technique, adapted from an old parlour game of words, emerged among artist
friends at 54 rue du Chateau, Paris. Early participants were Marcel Duchamp,
Jacques Prévert, Man Ray, and Joan Miró.
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Fauvism
The style of the Fauves (French for “wild beasts”), a group of painters who took
their name from a derogatory phrase used by the French journalist Louis
Vauxcelles. As a historical movement, Fauvism began at the controversial Salon
d’Automne in 1905, and ended less than five years later, in early 1910. Fauvism
was characterized by bold, unmixed colours, obvious brush strokes, and a
subjective approach to representation. Among the most important of the
Fauves were Henri Matisse, André Derain, and Maurice de Vlaminck.
Ferron, Marcelle (Canadian, 1924–2001)

A painter, sculptor, and stained-glass artist and a member of the Montreal-
based Automatistes. Ferron studied at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal
(now part of the Université du Québec à Montréal) before meeting Paul-Émile
Borduas, whose approach to modern art became crucial to her artistic
development. In 1953 she moved to France, where she lived for thirteen years.
Gagnon, Maurice (Canadian, 1904–1956)

An art critic and teacher at Montreal’s École du meuble, Gagnon studied art
history at the Sorbonne in Paris. His book Peinture moderne (1940) analyzes
various schools of modern art, including religious art. He was a friend to
luminaries of the French and Québecois avant-garde, including Fernand Léger
and Paul-Émile Borduas.
Gauvreau, Claude (Canadian, 1925–1971)

A playwright, poet, and polemicist known for contributing greatly to modernist
theatre in Quebec, Gauvreau was a leader of the Automatistes and signatory of
the 1948 manifesto Refus global. His writing is characterized by poetic
abstraction and expression, such as his first play, Bien-être, written in 1947 for
his muse and lover, Muriel Guilbault.
Gauvreau, Pierre (Canadian, 1922–2011)

A painter, writer, and television producer/director, Gauvreau met Paul-Émile
Borduas in 1941 when Gauvreau was a student at the École des beaux-arts in
Montreal (now part of the Université du Québec à Montréal). The paintings he
made before he joined the Automatistes in the late 1940s demonstrate a
Fauvist influence. He returned to a free style of painting later in his life.
General Idea (Canadian, active 1969–1994)

A prolific, provocative, and socially critical artist collective comprised of AA
Bronson (Michael Tims, b.1946), Felix Partz (Ronald Gabe, 1945–1994), and
Jorge Zontal (Slobodan Saia-Levy, 1944–1994). General Idea formed in
Toronto out of the countercultural scenes of the experimental free school
Rochdale College and Theatre Passe Muraille. Their conceptual projects
included those associated with Miss General Idea and series dealing with the
AIDS crisis. The collective founded FILE in 1972 and the artist-run centre Art
Metropole in 1973. (See General Idea: Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith.)
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Graham, Martha (American, 1894–1991)

A highly influential modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Graham’s
emphasis on the expressive capability of dance evoked socio-political,
emotional, sexual, and visceral themes. The Graham technique, based on
angular movements and maintaining opposing tension in parts of the body,
offered the first major alternative to classical ballet idioms. In 1926 Graham
founded the Martha Graham Dance Company, which continues to receive
international acclaim.
Happenings
Beginning in the early 1960s, these precursors to performance, film, and video
art, Happenings were associated with George Maciunas and the international
art group Fluxus. These ephemeral performances challenged conventional
views of what was meant by “art,” breaking down the barriers between art and
life and subverting traditional, academic notions of the authority of the artist.
Happenings tended to be collaborations and involve audience participation.
Heward, Prudence (Canadian, 1896–1947)

A modernist painter recognized for her nuanced depictions of female subjects
at the intersection of class, gender, and race, Heward was associated with the
Beaver Hall Group, the Canadian Group of Painters, and the Contemporary
Arts Society. She studied art in London and Paris, and later travelled to Italy
with fellow artist and lifelong friend Isabel McLaughlin. Heward gained more
recognition after the 1970s, as feminist art historians drew scholarly attention
to Canadian women artists. (See Prudence Heward: Life & Work by Julia Skelly.)
Holm, Hanya (German/American, 1893–1992)

An influential modern dancer, teacher, and choreographer of Broadway
musicals, Holm was a major figure in shaping American modern dance. She
studied and later taught at the Mary Wigman Central Institute in Dresden and
in 1931 was sent to New York City to establish a branch of the Wigman school.
Holm emphasized emotional expression emerging from a more conscious
technical expertise. In 1939 she became a U.S. citizen and the first concert
dancer to broadcast her work on television. Holm was the first choreographer
to copyright a dance.
Horst, Louis (American, 1884–1964)

A pianist, composer, choreographer, and teacher, Horst was one of the first to
teach choreography as a discipline and served at many of the most influential
schools of modern dance and music in the United States, including
Neighborhood Playhouse and Juilliard in New York and Bennington College,
Vermont. Horst musically directed the Denishawn School of Dancing and
Related Arts in Los Angeles from 1915 to 1925 and worked with Martha
Graham Dance Company in New York from 1926 to 1948. In 1964 he received
the Heritage Award from the National Dance Association.
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installation art
Mixed-media constructed environments that are often temporary and site-
specific. The term originated in the 1970s and marked a shift from the
aesthetic, isolated art object to considering its context in everyday life as the
source of meaning. Installation art is not merely to be looked at but to be felt
as a presence in space by the viewer.
Judd, Donald (American, 1928–1994)

Sculptor, critic, and a leading Minimalist artist, though he renounced the term,
Judd is known for creating “specific objects,” on which he wrote a manifesto in
1964, and rejection of what he saw as the illusionism of two-dimensional
media. Judd’s objects, many of them taking the box form, embody rigorously
repetitive structures enforced by industrial materials and processes. In them,
the artist’s emotion is completely removed to consider the object’s influence
on its environment.
Kandinsky, Wassily (Russian, 1866–1944)

An artist, teacher, and philosopher who settled in Germany and later in France,
Kandinsky was central to the development of abstract art. Much of his work
conveys his interest in the relationships between colour, sound, and emotion.
Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), his famous treatise on abstraction, draws
on mysticism and theories of divinity.
Kosuth, Joseph (American, b. 1945)

A leading figure of conceptual art, known for his exploration of the relationship
between language, objects, and meaning. Kosuth believes that individual
artistic persona and skill should be removed from art in favour of the purity of
the idea. His seminal work, One and Three Chairs, 1965, presents a physical
chair along with its photograph and a textual definition. The work emphasizes
the idea of an object over hierarchies of representation.
land art
Site-specific artworks set in nature and the landscape, using organic materials.
Sometimes known as “earth art” or “earthworks,” land art emerged in the 1960s
out of the wider conceptual art movement and was mainly based in the United
States. The genre embraced temporality, natural erosion, the environmental
movement, and the rejection of commodification and the conventional gallery.
Major proponents include Robert Smithson, Richard Long, and Ana Mendieta.
Leduc, Fernand (Canadian, 1916–2014)

A painter and member of the Montreal-based Automatistes. Leduc’s earlier
paintings evince his interest in Surrealism and automatism; later he began to
work in a more formalist mode and then in a hard-edge style, which linked him
to the Plasticien movement.
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Léger, Fernand (French, 1881–1955)

A leading figure of the Paris avant-garde, whose ideas about modern art,
spread through his writing and teaching as well as his own artistic output,
would guide a generation of artists. Prolific in media from paint to ceramics to
film, Léger was appreciated for his diverse styles, which ranged from Cubist
abstraction in the 1910s to realist imagery in the 1950s.
Lippard, Lucy (American, b. 1937)

An influential writer, art critic, activist, curator, and early supporter of feminist
art, Lippard was instrumental in the public’s understanding of conceptual art
and dematerialization, through publications and the organization of major
exhibitions, including the 1969 show 557,087 at the Seattle Art Museum.
Lippard co-founded the Art Workers’ Coalition, which advocated for better
artist compensation and living conditions.
Lotto, Lorenzo (Italian, 1480–1556)

Renaissance painter of portraits and religious subjects steeped in mysticism.
Lotto was influenced by Titian, Raphael, and Northern European artists like
Hans Holbein the Younger. He was interested in realistic portrayal that also
conveyed heightened emotion and divine devotion. Near the end of his life,
Lotto settled in a monastery. He is one of the best-documented artists of his
time because of his own detailed records.
Lyman, John (Canadian, 1886–1967)

A painter and art critic. Founder of the Contemporary Arts Society and a
champion of Canadian artistic culture, Lyman established the short-lived art
school The Atelier and wrote for the Montrealer. In opposition to perspectives
invested in a distinctly Canadian painting style, Lyman advocated for an
international approach.
machine aesthetics
An aesthetics associated with 1920s and 1930s modernist architecture and
design that embraces functionalism and streamlined forms, and reveals inner
workings of the machine. This aesthetics emerged out of the great cultural
changes of the Machine Age, including the introduction of mass production.
The Bauhaus movement and Italian Futurism embody the major characteristics
of machine aesthetics.
Martin, Agnes (American/Canadian, 1912–2004)

An abstract painter known for her restrained canvases featuring grids and
stripes in serene hues, Martin worked between Abstract Expressionism and
Minimalism, adopting the latter’s formal language without emptying it of
emotional resonance. Martin immigrated to the United States in 1931 and
developed her artistic style in the creative circles of New Mexico and New
York City.
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Matisse, Henri (French, 1869–1954)

A painter, sculptor, printmaker, draftsman, and designer, aligned at different
times with the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Fauvists. By the 1920s
he was, with Pablo Picasso, one of the most famous painters of his generation,
known for his remarkable use of colour and line.
Millman, Rose (Canadian, 1890–1960)

A Montreal gallerist and founder of the Dominion Gallery of Fine Art in 1941,
Millman was the first woman to open an art gallery in Quebec. In 1947 she
relinquished control of the Dominion Gallery to Max Stern and established a
second gallery, the West End Gallery, which closed in 1955 due to her failing
health.
Minimalism
A branch of abstract art characterized by extreme restraint in form, most
popular among American artists from the 1950s to 1970s. Although
Minimalism can be expressed in any medium, it is most commonly associated
with sculpture; principal Minimalists include Carl Andre, Donald Judd, and
Tony Smith. Among the Minimalist painters were Agnes Martin, Barnett
Newman, Kenneth Noland, and Frank Stella.
modern dance
An early-twentieth-century development of dance styles alternative to the
decadence and rigidity of classical ballet. The movement arose mainly out of
Germany and the United States with dancers such as Mary Wigman, Isadora
Duncan, and Martha Graham. Modern dance abandoned the look of
effortlessness for visceral effect and a sense that the dancer, often performing
barefoot, was grounded in the earth. The early generation of modern dancers
influenced the choreographers of the 1940s and 1950s, including Merce
Cunningham and José Limon.
modernism
A movement extending from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century
in all the arts, modernism rejected academic traditions in favour of innovative
styles developed in response to contemporary industrialized society.
Beginning in painting with the Realist movement led by Gustave Courbet, it
progressed through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism
and on to abstraction. By the 1960s, anti-authoritarian postmodernist styles
such as Pop art, Conceptual art, and Neo-Expressionism blurred the distinction
between high art and mass culture.
Modigliani, Amedeo (Italian, 1884–1920)

A painter and sculptor of stylized, elongated, and melancholy portraits and
nude figures, Modigliani is recognized for the sensuality and sexuality in his
nude paintings of woman and for frank bodily depiction, considered vulgar by
some during his time. His depictions of faces are mask-like but nonetheless
provide psychological insight into his subjects. In 1906 Modigliani moved to
Paris and became a central figure of the École de Paris circle of artists who
created Fauvism, Cubism, and Post-Impressionism.
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Molinari, Guido (Canadian, 1933–2004)

A painter and theorist who was a member of the Plasticien movement in
Montreal. His work, beginning in the mid-1950s, set new models for geometric
painting internationally. His “razor-edged” Stripe Paintings create the illusion
of a dynamic space, evoked by the viewer’s active engagement with how
colours appear to change as they rhythmically repeat themselves across
the canvas.
Moore, David (Irish/Canadian, b. 1943)

A contemporary sculptor influenced by anthropology and the ancient past,
Moore studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and taught at
Concordia University from 1970 to 2006. In 1977 he began a series of site-
specific interventions into the places where past civilizations stood, including
Pompeii, Italy; Delphi, Greece; and the Blasket Islands, Ireland. In 1986 Moore
began to produce anthropomorphic figures, both small and monumental.
Mousseau, Jean-Paul (Canadian, 1927–1991)

A painter, illustrator, and designer, and a fervent advocate of integrating art
into architecture. Mousseau was a favoured protégé of Paul-Émile Borduas and
the youngest of the Montreal-based Automatistes. He was a prominent figure
of the Montreal arts scene and worked in a range of media, including plastic,
neon, and aluminum.
Nelligan, Émile (Canadian, 1879–1941)

A pioneer of French-Canadian poetry whose body of work includes 170 poems,
sonnets, and songs written between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. Nelligan
was a melancholy and nostalgic poetic voice who explored his inner world
rather than the traditional themes of patriotism and landscape. In 1897 he
joined the École littéraire de Montréal, a group of young writers concerned
with the declining state of the French language. In 1899 Nelligan was admitted
to the Saint-Benoît asylum and remained in hospitals for the remainder of
his life.
New Dance Group

Established in New York in 1932 by students of Hanya Holm, New Dance Group
(NDG) fused modern dance with left-wing politics, using dance as a force for
social change. Committed to social justice, the school offered inexpensive
classes in technique, improvisation, and Marxist thought. It became known as
one of the first mainstream dance schools to support African-American dancers
and choreographers, including Pearl Primus, and for its curriculum that
incorporated multiple dance influences. The school closed in 2009.
Pellan, Alfred (Canadian, 1906–1988)

A painter active in Paris art circles in the 1930s and 1940s. In Montreal Pellan
taught at the École des beaux-arts (now part of the Université du Québec à
Montréal) from 1943 to 1952. He was the leader of the short-lived Prisme
d’yeux (1948), a painters’ group that opposed and wanted to discredit the
ideas of the Automatistes. His work from the 1950s on is markedly Surrealist.
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performance art
A genre of art presented live and in which the medium is the artist’s body in
time. The performance may involve multiple participants, as well as the
audience. Performance art originated in the early twentieth century with
movements like Dadaism and Futurism and found wider prominence in the
1960s and 1970s after the decline of Modernism. Common themes of this
genre concern the dematerialized art object, ephemerality, the artist’s
presence, anti-capitalism, and the integration of art with life.
Perron, Maurice (Canadian, 1924–1999)

A photographer close to the Automatistes, Perron first met Paul-Émile Borduas
when he was a student at Montreal’s École du meuble, where Borduas taught
until 1948. His elegant and sometimes striking photographs of the group’s
members, activities, artwork, and performances illustrate most of the
Automatistes’ publications. Perron was a signatory to the 1948 Refus global
manifesto.
photomontage
A technique of collage that uses photographs and/or photographic
reproductions to create compositions, often employed to express political
agendas or dissent.
Picasso, Pablo (Spanish, 1881–1973)

One of the most famous and influential artists of his time, Picasso was a
prominent member of the Parisian avant-garde circle that included Henri
Matisse and Georges Braque. His painting Les demoiselles d’Avignon, 1906–7,
is considered by many to be the most important of the twentieth century.
Pollock, Jackson (American, 1912–1956)

Leader of the Abstract Expressionist movement, best known for his drip
paintings of the 1940s and 1950s. Pollock is also closely associated with action
painting, in which the act of painting is gestural and the artist approaches the
canvas with little notion of what he or she will create.
primitivism
A sensibility in various aspects of early European modern art in which non-
Western and European folk-art forms and tribal objects were idealized, as was a
simple way of life associated with Indigenous cultures. Pablo Picasso, Paul
Gauguin, and the Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge) embraced
elements of primitivism.
Primus, Pearl (American, 1919–1994)

A dancer, choreographer, teacher, and anthropologist who introduced the
American public to African dances and their significance in order to dispel
myths and stereotypes. Primus created several pieces about black American
life, including Strange Fruit, 1945, which references violent racism and the
lynching of African Americans. In 1959 Primus directed a new performing arts
centre in Monrovia, Liberia, and later taught throughout the United States.
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Proustian
Relating to the French novelist Marcel Proust (1871–1922), whose famous work
In Search of Lost Time concerns personal memory, the nature of art, anxiety,
and homosexuality. Proust’s prose is characterized by long and complicated
sentences. To be Proustian is also to have a vivid memory, formerly
unconscious, triggered by a sensual experience in the present.
readymade
A “readymade” or “objet trouvé” is an artwork composed of an existing,
everyday object; it is “art” only by virtue of being presented as such. The most
famous readymades are those of Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, who created
and engaged with the concept as a means of questioning the nature of art and
the role of the artist.
Refus global (Total Refusal)

A manifesto released in 1948 by the Automatistes, a Montreal-based artists’
group. Written by Paul-Émile Borduas and signed by fifteen other members,
the main text condemned the dominance of Catholic ideology and the social
and political status quo in Quebec. The Refus global influenced the province’s
period of rapid change that came to be known as the Quiet Revolution.
Renaud, Jeanne (Canadian, b. 1928)

A dancer, choreographer, and arts administrator, associated with the
Automatistes and known as one of the founding mothers of Quebec modern
dance. Renaud studied with Merce Cunningham, Hanya Holm, and Mary
Anthony in New York. From 1959 to 1965 she taught at the École de danse
moderne de Montréal and co-founded Quebec’s first modern dance company,
Le Groupe de la Place Royale, in 1966. In 1995 Renaud received the Governor
General’s Award for the Performing Arts.
Renaud, Louise (Canadian, b. 1922)

A painter, dancer, and lighting designer, associated with the Automatistes,
Renaud was a signatory of the 1948 Refus global manifesto. In 1944 she
studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. Her works often concern the
effects of time’s passage. Since 1990 Renaud has lived and worked in Belgium.
Riopelle, Françoise (Canadian, b. 1927)

A dancer, choreographer, and pioneer of Quebec modern dance, Riopelle was
a signatory of the 1948 Refus global manifesto. In 1959 she co-founded the
École de danse moderne de Montréal. In 1969 Riopelle began to teach theatre
and dance at the newly opened Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
From 1985 to 1991 she served on the board of directors of Danse-Cité,
Montreal.
Riopelle, Jean-Paul (Canadian, 1923–2002)

A towering figure in Québécois modern art who, like the other members of the
Automatistes, was interested in Surrealism and abstract art. Riopelle moved to
Paris in 1947, where he participated in the last major exhibition of the Parisian
Surrealists, organized by Marcel Duchamp and André Breton.
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Robertson, Sarah (Canadian, 1891–1948)

Robertson was a member of the Beaver Hall Group and exhibited with several
female painters from Montreal after the group disbanded. Influenced by
Impressionism, Fauvism, and the Group of Seven, Robertson painted portraits,
landscapes, and flowers in brilliant colours.
Rothko, Mark (American, 1903–1970)

A leading figure of Abstract Expressionism, Rothko began his career as an
illustrator and watercolourist. In the late 1940s he developed the style that
would come to define his career, creating intense colour-field oil paintings that
express the same anxiety and mystery that informed his earlier figurative work.
Salon du Printemps de Montréal

An annual exhibition of Canadian artists presented by the Art Association of
Montreal (now the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) for the first time in 1880.
The salon featured amateur, emerging, and professional artists, as well as art-
school students. The salon helped Canadian artists gain recognition in a
period when more art schools were being established locally so that artists did
not have to travel to Europe to study.
Savage, Anne (Canadian, 1896–1971)

A painter and educator. Savage’s early work is characterized by rhythmic
portrayals of Canadian landscapes, though her later paintings were abstract.
She founded arts education organizations and was an original member of the
Beaver Hall Group and the Canadian Group of Painters.
Snow, Michael (Canadian, b. 1928)

An artist whose paintings, films, photographs, sculptures, installations, and
musical performances have kept him in the spotlight for over sixty years.
Snow’s Walking Woman series of the 1960s holds a prominent place in
Canadian art history. His contributions to visual art, experimental film, and
music have been recognized internationally. (See Michael Snow: Life & Work by
Martha Langford.)
Stravinsky, Igor (Russian/French, 1882–1971)

A conductor, pianist, and revolutionary composer of the twentieth century,
Stravinsky was known for his creative, daring compositions and stylistic
diversity, beginning with his three Russian ballets written before the First World
War, including Petrushka (1911). After the Russian Revolution, Stravinsky
settled in France and then immigrated to the United States. During this period,
his works adopted Neoclassical and Baroque elements.
Surrealism
An early twentieth-century literary and artistic movement that began in Paris.
Surrealism aimed to express the workings of the unconscious, free of
convention and reason, and was characterized by fantastic images and
incongruous juxtapositions. The movement spread globally, influencing film,
theatre, and music.
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Tuttle, Richard (American, b. 1941)

A contemporary conceptual artist who has had a prolific output since the
1960s, working at the intersection of sculpture, painting, assemblage, and
poetry. Tuttle’s pieces explore the volume, colour, lines, textures, and shapes
of humble materials. The artist lives and works in Maine, New Mexico, and New
York City.
Vaillancourt, Armand (Canadian, b. 1929)

An abstract sculptor and painter whose work is often informed by the political
principle of anti-oppression. Vaillancourt’s materials range from clay and wood
to salvaged metal, bone, and concrete, and his creations often privilege the
physical character of his chosen medium.
Varèse, Edgard (French/American, 1883–1965)

An innovative twentieth-century composer who experimented with methods of
sound production, Varèse is known for creating noisy and dissonant
compositions, his use of unconventional instruments, and his novel approaches
to the hallmarks of music: melody, rhythm, and harmony. He immigrated to the
United States in 1915 and founded the International Composers’ Guild. In the
1950s Varèse began to concentrate on electronic music.
Véhicule Art
Active from 1972 to 1983, Véhicule Art was the first artist-run centre in
Montreal. Its founding members included Gary Coward, Bill Vazan, Henry Saxe,
Suzy Lake, and Milly Ristvedt. Véhicule Art aimed to be an interdisciplinary,
experimental exhibition space as well as a centre of education for artists and
the public. In the 1970s the gallery added experimental dance to its
programming. By the end of the 1970s, video works dominated its roster.
Viau, Guy (Canadian, 1920–1971)

An art critic, painter, designer, and leader in the Canadian cultural scene from
the 1940s until his sudden death, Viau was associated with the Automatistes
and studied with Paul-Émile Borduas. He taught at the École du meuble, a
furniture design school, and the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. Viau
contributed independently to Canadian newspapers and broadcasters in the
form of major international stories and art films. He is the author of Modern
Painting in French Canada (1967). Viau served in many leading cultural
positions, including as the deputy director of the National Gallery of Canada in
Ottawa, from 1967 to 1969, and as the founding director of the Canadian
Cultural Centre in Paris in 1969.
Wieland, Joyce (Canadian, 1930–1998)

A central figure in contemporary Canadian art, Wieland engaged with painting,
filmmaking, and cloth and plastic assemblage to explore with wit and passion
ideas related to gender, national identity, and the natural world. In 1971 she
became the first living Canadian woman artist to have a solo exhibition at the
National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. (See Joyce Wieland: Life & Work by
Johanne Sloan.)
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Sullivan rapidly gained recognition in Quebec, across Canada, and

abroad. She has been widely written about and her own writings and
the interviews she has given provide insight into her artistic process.
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KEY EXHIBITIONS
Sullivan’s works have been exhibited in Canada, the United States, and Europe.
This selection does not include myriad small shows she participated in during
her career, nor the public presentations of her choreographies and
performance art.
View of Proportio, an exhibition at Galerie Simon Blais, with the work Proportio-3 (left) and Proportio-2 (right), photograph by Guy
L’Heureux.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1943 Les Sagittaires, Dominion Gallery, Montreal.
1963 Concours artistique de la Province de Québec, École des beaux-arts, Montreal.
1965 Confrontation ’65, Association des sculpteurs du Québec, Montreal.
1966 Salon de la jeune peinture, Musée Rodin, Paris.
1967 III Mostra Internazionale di Scultura, Pagani Foundation, Italy.
1970 Panorama de la sculpture au Québec, 1945–1970, Musée d’art contemporain

de Montréal.
1972 Borduas et les Automatistes: 1942–1955, Musée d’art contemporain de

Montréal et Grand Palais, Paris.
1976 Corridart, Sherbrooke Street, Montreal.
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1977 Françoise Sullivan/David Moore, Véhicule Art, Montreal.
1978 Les Automatistes, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
1980 La révolution Automatiste, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
1992 La crise de l’abstraction au Canada: Les années 1950/The Crisis of Abstraction:

The 1950s, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, and
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
1998 L’époque Automatiste, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Refus global (1948): Le manifeste du mouvement Automatiste, Canadian
Cultural Centre, Paris.
1999 Déclics art et société: Le Québec des années 60 et 70, Musée d’art
2001 Corridart revisité: 25 ans plus tard/Corridart Revisited: 25 Years Later,

Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal.
2002 Place à la magie: Les années 40, 50 et 60 au Québec, Musée d’art

2005 Les années 60 au Canada/The Sixties in Canada, National Gallery of Canada,

Ottawa.
2010 On Line: Drawing through the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art,
New York.
The Automatiste Revolution: Montreal, 1941–1960, Albright-Knox Art Gallery,

Buffalo.
2012 Trafic: L’art conceptuel au Canada, 1965–1980/Traffic Conceptual Art in

Canada, 1965–1980, Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University,
Montreal.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1964 Sculptures, Galerie du Siècle, Montreal.
1978 Danse dans la neige, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
1981 Françoise Sullivan: Rétrospective, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
1993 Françoise Sullivan, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City.
2003 Françoise Sullivan (réstrospective), Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.
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2008 Françoise Sullivan, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
2016 Françoise Sullivan: Hommage à la peinture, Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-

Saint-Paul, Quebec.
2017 Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires resplendissantes, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY THE ARTIST

Sullivan wrote periodically about
the artistic developments that
marked the twentieth century. Her
texts reveal the influences that
shaped her artistic practice and
provide insight into her process.
“La peinture féminine.” Le Quartier

Latin, November 17, 1943, viii.
“La danse et l’espoir.” In Refus

global, edited by Paul-Émile
Borduas et al., n.p. Saint-Hilaire:
Éditions Myrtha Mythe, 1948.
“Sans titre.” In Françoise

Sullivan/David Moore, n.p. LEFT: Françoise Sullivan, c. 1964, photograph by Photo Gaby, archive of the artist.
Montreal, Véhicule Art, 1977. RIGHT: Françoise Sullivan at the Venice Biennale, 1970, photograph by Louis Comtois,
archive of the artist.
“Je précise.” In Danse dans la

neige, n.p. Montreal: Image Ouareau, 1977.
“Dance and Hope.” In Paul-Émile Borduas et al., Total Refusal: The Complete
1948 Manifesto of the Montreal Automatists, translated and introduced by Ray
Ellenwood. Toronto: Exile Editions, 1985.
“La place de l’œuvre d’art.” In “1948 Refus global: 1998 Refus Total.” L’action
nationale 88, no. 7 (1998): 62–63.
“Salut Zarathoustra.” Liberté 43, no. 254 (2001): 164–67.
TALKS BY THE ARTIST

1975: “Minimalisme,” conference presented at Université du Québec à
Montréal.
“L’art conceptuel,” conference presented at Université du Québec à Montréal.
1993: “Untitled,” conference presented in the context of the exhibition The

Crisis of Abstraction in Canada: The 1950s, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
2004: “Goodbye Monsieur Duchamp,” conference at the Royal Society of

Canada, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
SELECTED CRITICAL WRITINGS ON THE ARTIST’S WORK

As Sullivan’s recognition as an important Canadian artist continues to grow, so
does the breadth of scholarship and the number of critical reviews interpreting
and documenting her work.
Allaire, Serge. Françoise Sullivan:

Paintings 2007. Montreal: Éditions
Simon Blais, 2008.
Aquin, Stéphane. Françoise

Sullivan. Exhibition catalogue,
Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.
Montreal: Éditions Parachute,
2003.
Arbour, Rose-Marie. “Nouvelles

pratiques sculpturales: Yvette
Bisson, Françoise Sullivan.”
Espace: Art actuel, no. 25 (1993):
17–21.
Bénichou, Anne. “Reperformance

and Transhistoricity: The Danse[s]
dans la neige by Françoise Sullivan
and by Luis Jacob.” Performance
Research 21, no. 5 (2016): 21–34.
Bradley, Paul (dir.). Françoise

Sullivan—Hommage à la peinture.
Baie-Saint-Paul, QC: Musée d’art
contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul,
2016.
Côté, Mario. “Recréer Danse dans Poster for the performance And the Night to the Night (Et la nuit à la nuit) by Françoise
la neige/Re-creating Danse dans la Sullivan’s dance group, 1981, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
neige.” Ciel variable, no. 86 (2010):

32–39.
Daigneault, Gilles. “Sullivan Danse Dessin.” Liberté 43, no. 4 (2001): 115–18.
Déry, Louise. Françoise Sullivan. Exhibition catalogue. Quebec City: Musée du

Québec, 1993.
———. Les saisons Sullivan/The Seasons of Sullivan. Montreal: Galerie de l’UQAM,

2010.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
———, Radiant Trajectories/Trajectoires resplendissantes. Exhibition catalogue.

Montreal: Galerie de l’UQAM, 2017.
Gosselin, Claude. Françoise Sullivan: Rétrospective. Exhibition catalogue.

Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain, 1981.
———. “Le Cycle Crétois de Françoise Sullivan.” Vie des Arts 29, no. 118 (1985):
34–35.
Lehmann, Henry. “Françoise Sullivan.” Vie des Arts 20, no. 78 (Spring 1975):
28–29.
Lindgren, Allana. From Automatism to Modern Dance: Françoise Sullivan with

Franziska Boas in New York. Toronto: Dance Collection Danse Press/es, 2003.
———. “Rethinking Automatist Interdisciplinarity: The Relationship between

Dance and Music in the Early Choreographic Works of Jeanne Renaud and
Françoise Sullivan, 1948–1950.” Circuit: Musiques contemporaines 21, no. 3
(2011): 39–53.
Lungu, Florentina. “L’oeuvre de Françoise Sullivan sous le signe de

l’archétype.” ETC, no. 64 (2003–04): 34–37.
Rannou, Pierre. “Les promenades de Françoise Sullivan.” Esse, no. 54

(Spring/Summer 2005): 26-31.
Saint-Gelais, Thérèse. “Françoise Sullivan.” Protée 26, no. 3 (1998): 65–67.
KEY INTERVIEWS WITH THE ARTIST

Biron, Normand. “Françoise
Sullivan et les rythmes profonds de
la nature.” Vie des Arts 32, no. 127
(June 1987): 59 and 75.
Blois, Michel, and Alexandre

Motulsky-Falardeau. “Quand la
peinture et la danse ne font
qu’une.” Être artiste: Entretiens
avec Madeleine Arbour, Francine
Simonin, Paul Lacroix, Jean-Pierre
Morin, Michel Goulet, Françoise
Sullivan, René Derouin et Marcel
Barbeau, 64–69. Quebec City:
L’Instant même, 2015.
Enright, Robert. “A Woman for All Françoise Sullivan with her sons, c. mid-1960s, photograph by Paterson Ewen, archive of
the artist.
Seasons: An Interview with
Françoise Sullivan.” Border
Crossings 27, no. 2 (June 2008): 48–61.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Lasnier, Michelle. “Les femmes peintres du Québec.” Châtelaine, October

1962, 102.
Toupin, Gilles. “La nostalgie de l’art.” La Presse (Montreal), January 13, 1973,
D-14.
Tsanaktsis, Rena. “Unique Gestures in Time.” Bulletin de l’Institut Simone de

Beauvoir 14 (1994): 11–12.
AUDIO
Art Gallery of Ontario. “Françoise Sullivan in Conversation with Robert
Enright.” Art Matter Blog, March 18, 2010, online resource,
http://artmatters.ca/wp/2010/03/francoise-sullivan-in-conversation-with-
robert-enright-audio/.
MoMA Multimedia. “Françoise Sullivan, Danse dans la neige (Dancing in the

Snow).” No. 1–17, 1948, 2010, online audio archive,
http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/244/2442.
CBC Player. “Françoise Sullivan: Her Art and the Music She Loves.” January 7,
2017, online audio archive.
CBC Listen. “At 93, Pioneering Avant-Garde Artist Françoise Sullivan Paints
Every Day and Lives in the Present.” February 12, 2017, online audio archive,
http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/sunday-edition/segment/11646868.
VIDEO
Art Gallery of Ontario. “Françoise Sullivan on Danse dans la neige,”
Prizewinning Art by Françoise Sullivan, 2010, online resource,
http://www.ago.net/prizewinning-art-by-francoise-sullivan.
Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. “Les Automatistes.” Video Portraits,

Françoise Sullivan, 2008, online resource,
http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/fs_automatistes.html.
———. “Beaux-arts.” Video Portraits, Françoise Sullivan, 2008, online resource,

http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/fs_beauxArts.html.
———. “Danse dans la neige.” Video Portraits, Françoise Sullivan, 2008, online
resource, http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/fs_danse.html.
———. “Dance.” Video Portraits, Françoise Sullivan, 2008, online resource,

http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/fs_dance.html.
———. “Process.” Video Portraits, Françoise Sullivan, 2008, online resource,

http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/fs_process.html.
———. “Homage.” Video Portraits, Françoise Sullivan, 2008, online resource,

http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/fs_homage.html.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
La Fabrique Culturelle. “Françoise Sullivan: L’art avec un grand A,” Arts Visuels
et numériques, 2016, online resource, http://www.lafabriqueculturelle.tv/
capsules/7970/francoise-sullivan-l-art-avec-un-grand-a.
———. “Une artiste, une oeuvre: Françoise Sullivan.” Arts Visuels et numériques,
2016, online resource, http://www.lafabriqueculturelle.tv/capsules/7672/un-
artiste-une-oeuvre-francoise-sullivan.
FURTHER READING
Arbour, Rose-Marie. “Identification de l’avant-garde et identité de l’artiste: Les
femmes et le groupe automatiste au Québec (1941–1948).” RACAR 21, 1–2
(1994): 7–21.
Couture, Francine. Les arts visuels au Québec dans les années soixantes,
Tome II: L’Éclatement du modernisme. Montreal: VLB Éditeur, 1997.
Ellenwood, Ray. Egregore: The Montréal Automatist Movement. Toronto:

Exile Editions, 1992.
Lapointe, Gilles. La comète automatiste. Montreal: Fides, 2008.
Linteau, Paul-André. Histoire du Québec contemporain: Le Québec

depuis 1930. Montreal: Boréal, 1986.
Smart, Patricia. Les femmes du Refus Global. Montreal: Boréal, 1998.
Tembeck, Iro. Danser à Montréal: Germination d’une histoire

Cover of the catalogue for the exhibition
chorégraphique. Sillery, QC: Les Presses de l’Université du Québec, 1991. Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires
resplendissantes, 2017, Galerie de
l’UQAM.
Vigneault, Louise. Identité et modernité dans l’art au Québec: Borduas,
Sullivan, Riopelle. Montreal: Éditions Hurtubise HMH, 2002.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANNIE GÉRIN
Annie Gérin is a curator and professor of art history and art theory
at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She was
educated in Canada, Russia, and the United Kingdom, and her
research interests encompass the areas of Canadian and Soviet
art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She is especially
interested in art as it is encountered by non-specialized publics,
outside the gallery space.
Gérin is the author of Godless at the Workbench: Soviet

Humoristic Antireligious Propaganda/Sans-dieu à l’atelier: La “Throughout my life I have
propagande antireligieuse illustrée et humoristique en Union been in contact with
Soviétique (2004), and Devastation and Laughter: Satire, Power,
Françoise Sullivan’s work. I
and Culture in the Early Soviet State, 1920s–1930s (2018). She has
co-edited several essay collections, including Canadian Cultural am amazed at her prolonged
Poesis (2006), Public Art in Canada: Critical Perspectives (2009), career and the variety of
Oeuvres à la rue: Pratiques et discours émergents en art public projects and media she
(2010), Formes urbaines: Circulation, stockage et transmission de
tackled. When I first visited
l’expression culturelle à Montréal (2014), and Sketches from an
Unquiet Country: Canadian Graphic Satire, 1840–1940 (2018). her studio in 2016, I was also
impressed by her generosity
and her quick wit. The studio
was filled with works, books,
and piles of paint tubes,
which she described as
photogenic. At the age of
ninety-three, she was still
painting pretty much every
day.”
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
COPYRIGHT & CREDITS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
From the Author
This project would not have happened without the help of my research
assistant, Julie Richard. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues Louise Déry,
Mario Côté, Louise Vigneault, Gilles Lapointe, Peter Hodgins, Ken Carpenter,
Marie Beaulieu, and many others. Paul Bradley and the Galerie Simon Blais
were extremely generous in sharing images of Sullivan’s work. I am especially
indebted to Françoise Sullivan, who made me tea in her Pointe-Saint-Charles
studio, and took the time to discuss her life and work with me.
I was honoured to be asked to write about Françoise Sullivan by Art Canada

Institute. I wish to thank Sara Angel and Anna Hudson for thinking of me, as
well as the other members of the ACI team who contributed to this book: Lara
Hinchberger, Kendra Ward, Simone Wharton, Laura Demers, Emily Derr, and
Ginette Jubinville.
From the Art Canada Institute

The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Alexandra
Bennett in memory of Jalynn Bennett, the Title Sponsor of this book.
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges its other sponsors for the
2017–18 Season: Aimia, Consignor Canadian Fine Art, Kiki and Ian Delaney,
Richard and Donna Ivey, the six children of Betty-Ann McNicoll-Elliott and R.
Fraser Elliott, The Sabourin Family Foundation, Sandra L. Simpson, and TD
Bank Group.
We also sincerely thank the Founding Sponsor for the Art Canada Institute:
BMO Financial Group; and the Art Canada Institute Founding Patrons:
Jalynn H. Bennett, Butterfield Family Foundation, David and Vivian Campbell,
Albert E. Cummings, Kiki and Ian Delaney, Dr. Jon S. and Mrs. Lyne Dellandrea,
the Fleck family, Roger and Kevin Garland, Glorious & Free Foundation, The
Scott Griffin Foundation, Gershon Iskowitz Foundation, Jane Huh, Michelle
Koerner and Kevin Doyle, Lawson Hunter, Phil Lind, Nancy McCain and Bill
Morneau, Sarah and Tom Milroy, Partners in Art, Gerald Sheff and Shanitha
Kachan, Sandra L. Simpson, Stephen Smart, Pam and Mike Stein, Nalini and
Tim Stewart, The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Robin and David Young,
and Sara and Michael Angel.
We thank our Lead Benefactors: Alexandra Baillie, Alexandra Bennett, Grant

and Alice Burton, Kiki and Ian Delaney, Dr. Jon S. and Mrs. Lyne Dellandrea,
Michelle Koerner and Kevin Doyle, James and Melinda Harrison, Sarah and
Tom Milroy, Partners in Art, Pam and Michael Stein, and Sara and Michael
Angel.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
We thank our Patrons: Connor, Clark & Lunn Foundation and Lawson Hunter.
The ACI gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of the Archives de
la ville de Montréal (Gilles Lafontaine); Art Gallery of Ontario (Eva Athanasiu);
Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (Hyacinthe Munger);
Bibliothèque de la danse Vincent-Warren (Marie-Josée Lecours); Canada
Council Art Bank (Christine Couture and Martha Young); Canadian Art
Database (Bill Kirby); Concordia University Archive (Ellen Gressling); Dance
Collection Danse Archive (Amy Bowring), Galerie de l’UQAM (Louise Déry),
Galerie Simon Blais (Paul Bradley); Harbourfront Centre Gallery (Yvonne
Lammerich and Marlee Choo); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Marie-Claude
Saia and Claudine Nicol); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (Pascale
Tremblay); Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Lina Doyon); National
Gallery of Canada (Raven Amiro); Photo Gaby (Ronald Desmarais); Thomas
Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto (Elizabeth Ridolfo);
University of Regina Archives (Trevor Hopkin), as well as Luis Jacob and Gilles
Lessard.
We also would like to acknowledge the image research assistance of Isadora

Chicoine-Marinier and Françoise Sullivan.
SPONSOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IMAGE SOURCES
Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material.
The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
Credit for Cover Image
Françoise Sullivan, Proportio-7, 2015. (See below for details.)
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Credits for Banner Images
Biography: Françoise Sullivan, 1980. Photograph by Louise Descoteaux. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais,
Montreal.
Key Works: Homage to Paterson, 2003. (See below for details.)
Significance & Critical Issues: Only Red no. 2, 2016. (See below for details.)
Style & Technique: Françoise Sullivan and Jeanne Renaud in Duality (Dualité), 1948. (See below for details.)
Sources & Resources: A page from Refus global; “La danse et l’espoir,” 1948. The Thomas Fisher Rare Book
Library, University of Toronto, D-10 7108.
Where to See: Françoise Sullivan’s Montreal studio, 2015. Photographer unknown. Archive of the artist.
Courtesy of the artist.
Credits for Works by Françoise Sullivan
Amerindian Head I (Tête amérindienne I), 1941. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais,
Montreal. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Amerindian Head II (Tête amérindienne II), 1941. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais,
Montreal. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Black and Tan, 1948. Costume by Jean-Paul Mousseau. Fonds Iro Valaskakis Tembeck, Bibliothèque de la
danse Vincent-Warren, Montreal, PHO-S855-1949-01. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Blocked Phone Booth (Cabine téléphonique bloquée), 1978–79. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie
Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Blocked Window (Fenêtre bloquée), 1977. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM.
© Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: L-P Côté.
Blue Bloom, 2016. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Guy L’Heureux.
Callooh Callay, 1967. University of Regina, Saskatchewan. Courtesy of BAnQ, Montreal. © Françoise
Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Choreography for Five Dancers and Five Automobiles (Chorégraphie pour cinq danseuses et cinq
automobiles), 1979. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the artist. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Concentric Fall (Chute concentrique), 1962. Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City.
Purchased during the “Concours artistiques du Québec” (1st prize, sculpture) (1963.132). © Françoise
Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: MNBAQ, Idra Labrie.
Cretan Cycle 2, no. 2 (Cycle crétois 2, no. 2), 1985. Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, gift from Françoise
Sullivan. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Guy
L’Heureux.
Cretan Cycle 2, no. 3 (Cycle crétois 2, no. 3), 1985. Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, gift from Françoise
Sullivan. Photograph by Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Cretan Cycle no. 13 (Cycle crétois no. 13), 1984. Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City.
Purchased for the collection “Prêt d’œuvres d’art” (CP.1985.57) © Françoise Sullivan SODRAC (2018). Photo
credit: MNBAQ, Idra Labrie.
Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948. Images from the album Danse dans la neige, published by
Françoise Sullivan in fifty copies, S.l. Images Ouareau (1977). Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM. © Françoise
Encounter with Archaic Apollo (Rencontre avec Apollon archaïque), 1974. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gift
from Françoise Sullivan (2001.67). © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Fall in Red (Chute en rouge), 1966. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, (A 67 13 S 1). © Françoise
Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: MACM.
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Françoise Sullivan performing Black and Tan, 1947. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. © Françoise
Homage to Paterson, 2003. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Denis Farley, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Homage to Ulysse no. 3, 2003. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Jean-Paul (no. 4), from the series Homages, 2002–03. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, anonymous donor
(2004/169). © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
I Speak (Je parle), 1993, choreography, text, and painted tondo, performed by Ginette Boutin during the
opening of the exhibition Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires resplendissantes, January 10, 2017. Photograph by
Isadora Chicoine-Marinier. Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM.
Labyrinth (Labyrinthe), 1981. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased 1982 (no. 28115.3).
© Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Madame Récamier (also known as Reclining Woman), 1966. Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank.
Courtesy of the Art Bank. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Mountain (Montagne), 1997. Pavillon Président-Kennedy, Université du Québec à Montréal (1997.4.1-7).

© Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Galerie de l’UQAM.
Notations of a Choreography (Notations d’une chorégraphie), 1948. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of
Galerie de l’UQAM. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: L-P Côté/Galerie de l’UQAM.
Of One (De une), 1968–69. Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, gift from Françoise
Sullivan (2002.165). Courtesy of the artist. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Michiko
Yajima.
Only Red no. 2, 2016. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Portraits of People Who Resemble One Another (Portraits de personnes qui se ressemblent), 1971 (printed
2003). Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo
credit: L-P Côté.
Proportio-5, 2015. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Proportio-7, 2015. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Proportio-8 b, 2015. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Reds (Rouges), 2009–10. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gift from Françoise Sullivan, (2011.347.1-2).
Photograph by the MMFA. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Rien, 1966. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Reproduced with permission of the artist from Françoise
Sullivan: Rétrospective, exhibition catalogue, Quebec: Ministère des affaires culturelles, 1981.
Les Saisons Sullivan, details of spring, summer, and autumn, 1947–2007. Prints by Marion Landry.
Interpretations by Andrée-Maude Côté (spring), Annik Hamel (summer), Louise Bédard (autumn), and Ginette
Boutin (winter). Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Sculpture to See Through no. 5 (Sculpture pour voir au travers no. 5), 1965. Collection of the artist. Courtesy
of the artist. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Spiral (Spirale), 1969. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, (A 77 59 S 1). © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC
(2018). Photo credit: Richard-Max Tremblay.
Still Life (Nature morte), 1940. Collection of Madeleine Arbour. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Legend of Artists (La légende des artistes), 1976. In collaboration with David Moore and Jean-Serge
Champagne. Photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier, Fonds Corridart, Concordia University Archives, Montreal
(P119-02-231). © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Champagne. Photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier. Archives de la ville de Montréal (VM094-EM0750-002).
Champagne. Photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier. Archives de la ville de Montréal (VM94-EM0750-006).
The Progress of Cruelty (Le progrès de la cruauté), 1964. Petromont Collection, Montreal Museum of Fine
Arts, (1991.16). © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Tondo II, 1980. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. Copyright
Tondo III, 1980. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. Copyright
Tondo no. 6, 1980. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Tondo VIII, 1980. Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, purchase (1984.13). Photograph
by Pierre Charrier. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Untitled (Colourful Wave) (Sans titre [Onde colorée]), c. 1966–67. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie
Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Guy L’Heureux.
Untitled, 1968. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, gift from M. Jean leFebure (D 11 16 S 2). © Françoise
Sullivan/SODRAC (2018). Photo credit: Richard-Max Tremblay.
Françoise Sullivan during the performance Walk among the Oil Refineries (Promenade parmi les raffineries
de pétrole), 1973. Photograph by Alex Neumann. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Walk between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts (Promenade entre le Musée
d’art contemporain et le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal), 1970. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gift from
Françoise Sullivan (2001.66.6). © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
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Credits for Photographs and Works by Other Artists
Callooh Callay reinstalled at the University of Regina in 2010. Photographer unknown. University of Regina
Archives.
Choreographic notes for Françoise Sullivan’s Hierophany (Hiérophanie), 1979. Dance Collection Danse
Archive, Toronto.
Cover of the catalogue for the exhibition Françoise Sullivan: Trajectoires resplendissantes, 2017. Courtesy of
the Galerie de l’UQAM.
A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, Based on the Choreography of Françoise Sullivan
and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth (with Sign-Language Supplement), 2007, by Luis Jacob. Courtesy of
the artist.
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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Demolition of Corridart, Sherbrooke Street, July 13 and 14, 1976. Photograph by Louis-Philippe Meunier.
Archives de la ville de Montréal, VM94-EM0752-008.
Handprints (Empreintes), 2015, instruction of Paul-André Fortier performed by Françoise Sullivan during the
opening of the exhibition do it Montreal, Galerie de l’UQAM, January 12, 2016, Montreal. Photograph by
David Ospina. Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM.
Handprints (Empreintes), 2015, instruction of Paul-André Fortier performed by Françoise Sullivan during the
opening of the exhibition do it Montreal, Galerie de l’UQAM, January 12, 2016, Montreal. Photograph by L-P
Côté. Courtesy of Galerie de l’UQAM.
Endless Column (Version 1), by Constantin Brancusi, 1918. Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift from Mary
Sisler (645.1983) © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
En face de moi, a choreography by Françoise Sullivan, performed by Ginette Boutin during the Françoise
Sullivan exhibition at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, in March 1993.
Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. © Françoise
Françoise Sullivan, 1936. Photograph by Studio Garcia. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal.
Françoise Sullivan, c. 1964. Photograph by Photo Gaby. Archive of the artist. Courtesy of the artist.
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Françoise Sullivan, c. 1965. Photograph by George C. Fenyon. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Françoise Sullivan, age fourteen, at l’École de danse Gérald Crevier. Photographer unknown. Dance Collection
Danse Archive, Toronto.
Françoise Sullivan and her sons, c. mid-1960s. Photograph by Paterson Ewen. Archive of the artist. Courtesy of
the artist.
Françoise Sullivan and her sons, Vincent, Geoffrey, Jean-Christophe, and Francis, in their home, 1961.
Photograph by Paterson Ewen. Courtesy of the artist.
Françoise Sullivan and Jeanne Renaud in Duality (Dualité), 1948. Photograph by Arthur Renaud. Fonds Iro
Valaskakis Tembeck, Bibliothèque de la danse Vincent-Warren, Montreal, PHO-S855-1948-01.
Françoise Sullivan and Jeanne Renaud in Duality (Dualité), 1948. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the
Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Françoise Sullivan and Penny Kondak in Duality (Dualité), 1949. Photographer unknown. Archive of the artist.
Courtesy of the artist.
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Françoise Sullivan and Pierre Gauvreau, at l’École de danse Gérald Crevier, “Le spectre de la rose,” 1940s.
Photograph by Niemi Studios. Courtesy of the artist.
Françoise Sullivan at Franziska Boas’s studio in New York, c. 1947. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of
the artist.
Françoise Sullivan at Hickey Plastics, working on a Plexiglas sculpture, 1968. Photograph by Michiko Yajima
Gagnon. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Françoise Sullivan at the Venice Biennale, 1970. Photograph by Louis Comtois. Courtesy of the artist.
Françoise Sullivan (front), John A. Sullivan (left), and Corinne Sullivan (third from left) with family friends,
1934. Archive of the artist. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal.
Françoise Sullivan, Gérald Crevier, and Marie-Paule Crevier, 1940. Photographer unknown. Dance Collection
Danse Archive, Toronto.
Françoise Sullivan in the CBC production of Monteverdi’s Le Combat, featuring a choreography by Sullivan,
1953. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC
(2018).
122
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Françoise Sullivan in Central Park, New York, c. 1946. Photograph by Laredo. Courtesy of the artist.
Françoise Sullivan in her studio, 2007, photograph by François Lafrance. Archive of the artist. Courtesy of
the artist.
Françoise Sullivan wearing the costume Jean-Paul Mousseau designed for Black and Tan, 1949. Dance
Collection Danse Archive, Toronto. Photograph by Annette and Basil Zarov. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC
(2018).
Françoise Sullivan with Mary O’Connell at Franziska Boas’s studio in New York, c. 1947. Photographer
unknown. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Ginette Boutin in Black and Tan, 1992, a choreography by Françoise Sullivan. Photographer unknown.
Courtesy of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art.
Installation view of Mountain (Montagne), 1997. Pavillon Président-Kennedy, Université du Québec à

Montréal (1997.4.1-7). Photograph by Michel Brunel. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Installation views of Aeris Ludus, 1967. Sculpture ’67 catalogue, published by the National Gallery Centennial
project for Toronto City Hall. Courtesy of Harbourfront Centre Gallery, Toronto. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC
(2018).
123
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Invitation to Françoise Sullivan’s reading of her essay “La danse aujourd’hui,” February 16, 1948. Dance
Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
L’affaire Corridart postcards, 1977. Fonds Pierre Ayot, BAnQ, Vieux-Montréal, (P905,S6,D1).
Mechanical Ballet (Ballet mécanique), by Fernand Léger, 1924. Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired
from the artist © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Martha Graham, Letter to the World (Kick), by Barbara Morgan, 1940. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
[©Barbara Morgan Estate]
A page from Refus global; “La danse et l’espoir,” 1948. The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of
Toronto, D-10 7108.
Paterson Ewen and Françoise Sullivan in New York, 1957. Photographer unknown. Dance Collection Danse
Archive, Toronto.
Pearl Primus, New York, by Lisette Model, 1943. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. © Lisette Model
Foundation.
124
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Pierre Gauvreau, Françoise Sullivan, Louise Renaud, Madeleine and Mimi Lalonde, Claude Gauvreau, and
Marcel Barbeau in Saint-Hilaire, 1946. Photographer unknown. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Plate from the album Dance in the Snow, choreography improvised by Françoise Sullivan, 1948, print 1977,
by Jean-Paul Riopelle. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Monique Arnoldi Bequest (2008.95.18). Photo credit:
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Poster for the performance And the Night to the Night (Et la nuit à la nuit) by Françoise Sullivan’s dance
group, 1981. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Poster for Franziska Boas’s studio, 1945, Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Proportio, an exhibition at Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal, with the work Proportio-3 (left) and Proportio-
2 (right). Photograph by Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal. © Françoise
Refus global manifesto, 1948. Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Refus global manifesto, table of contents, 1948. Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
125
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
Rehearsal of Françoise Sullivan’s Hierophany (Hiérophanie), 1980. Photograph by Denis Farley. Courtesy of
the artist. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Rehearsal of Françoise Sullivan’s choreography Labyrinth (Labyrinthe), 1981. Photographer unknown.

Courtesy of the artist. © Françoise Sullivan/SODRAC (2018).
Rideau, performed by Jeanne Renaud and Peter Boneham, during Expression 65 in 1965. Set design by
Françoise Sullivan. Photograph by Marc-André Gagné. Bibliothèque de la danse Vincent-Warren, Montreal,
(PHO-R463-1965-RID-01).
Shefler’s Springtime Revue at His Majesty’s Theatre in Montreal, April 27, 1934. Photograph by Ashton and
Doucet. Dance Collection Danse Archive, Toronto.
Souvenir program The Firebird, from the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev, 1910. Library of Congress, Music
Division.
The Strangford Apollo, c. 490 BC. British Museum, London, (1864,0220.1) © The Trustees of the British
Museum.
126
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
BOOK CREDITS
Publisher
Sara Angel
Executive Editor
Kendra Ward
Web & Layout Director

Simone Wharton
Editor
Lara Hinchberger
Copy Editor
Judy Phillips
Proofreader
Strong Finish Editorial Design
Translator
Ginette Jubinville
French Copy Editor and Proofreader

Annie Champagne
Image Research Associate

Laura Demers
Digital Image Specialist

Rachel Topham
Layout Designer and Associate

Emily Derr
French Layout Associate

Alicia Peres
Design Template
Studio Blackwell
127
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN
COPYRIGHT
© 2018 Art Canada Institute. All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-1-4871-0161-9
Art Canada Institute

Massey College, University of Toronto
4 Devonshire Place
Toronto, ON M5S 2E1
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gérin, Annie, 1969-, author

Françoise Sullivan : life & work / Annie Gérin.
Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: Biography — Key works — Significance & critical issues — Style &
technique — Sources & resources — Where to see.
Electronic monograph in HTML, PDF and mobile formats.

ISBN 978-1-4871-0163-3 (MOBILE). —ISBN 978-1-4871-0162-6
(PDF). — ISBN 978-1-4871-0161-9 (HTML)
1. Sullivan, Françoise, 1923-. 2. Sullivan, Françoise, 1923- —Criticism and

interpretation. I. Art Canada Institute, issuing body II. Title.
ND249.S72 G47 2018 759.11 C2018-901861-5
128

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FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN

Life & Work by Annie Gérin

Françoise Sullivan (b. 1923) is best known as a pioneering figure of

The pedagogical program at the

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), and William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), whose

BORDUAS AND THE AUTOMATISTES

reactionary society.”2 Because the group was influenced by the French

The paintings Sullivan made in the

THE NEW YORK PERIOD

In this context Sullivan was

RETURN TO MONTREAL: REFUS GLOBAL

Duplessis’s government took advantage of broad-reaching censorship laws to

“Bolshevik,” and “subversive” open to interpretation by those in power. 8 Public

Sullivan’s piece focused on the

It took courage and conviction for Sullivan to participate in this outright

1950S AND 1960S: FROM DANCE TO SCULPTURE

At this time, motherhood and work were largely understood to be

In 1959 Sullivan set up a studio in

Her first sculpture exhibition took

Sullivan rapidly became known as an important Canadian sculptor, showing her

1970S: CONCEPTUAL AND PERFORMANCE ART

Franziska Boas. In 1973 she joined Véhicule Art, a Montreal-based artist-run

In 1976 Sullivan designed a guided walk for Corridart, a public exhibition

bloquée et débloquée], 1978); collecting rocks and organizing them in circles

The paintings she created from the

Sullivan has been widely

Throughout her career, Sullivan has believed in constant and fearless

Françoise Sullivan continues to paint in her Pointe-Saint-Charles, Montreal,

Françoise Sullivan has created a remarkably diverse body of work

AMERINDIAN HEAD I 1941

Françoise Sullivan, Amerindian Head I (Tête amérindienne I), 1941

Amerindian Head I portrays a young Indigenous girl encountered by Sullivan in

DANCE IN THE SNOW 1948

Françoise Sullivan, Dance in the Snow (Danse dans la neige), 1948

Dance in the Snow is part of an improvised cycle of dance solos dedicated to

In February 1948 Sullivan set out

While choreographers frequently used improvisation to develop compositions,

BLACK AND TAN 1948

Françoise Sullivan, Black and Tan, 1948

Sullivan had originally planned to

CALLOOH CALLAY 1967

Françoise Sullivan, Callooh Callay, 1967

In the late 1950s Sullivan turned to sculpture as an accessible art form to

The title, Callooh Callay, is drawn

AERIS LUDUS 1967

Françoise Sullivan, Aeris Ludus, 1967

In the mid-1960s Sullivan started to experiment sculpturally with movement.

Françoise Sullivan, Of One (De une), 1968–69

Moulded from a single sheet of Plexiglas, Of One is a translucent spiral that

Whereas Sullivan’s metallic

WALK BETWEEN THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE

In 1970 Françoise Sullivan walked from the Musée d’art contemporain de

The documentation of the work

PORTRAITS OF PEOPLE WHO RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER 1971 (PRINTED

Françoise Sullivan, Portraits of People Who Resemble One Another (Portraits de

LEGEND OF ARTISTS 1976

Corridart was a six-kilometre-long public exhibition displayed along

The laminated wood cases were

profound, almost Proustian.”1

ENCOUNTER WITH ARCHAIC APOLLO 1974