Refus au féminin

SYLVAIN-JACQUES DESJARDINS | When Patricia Smart wrote her book, Les Femmes du Refus global, she said she wanted to shed a light on the seven women who were an integral part of one of Quebec's most culturally significant movements of this century.

The Refus global, a 12-page manifesto that demanded artistic freedom at the height of Quebec's repressive Catholic regime, was signed by 15 Quebec artists and intellectuals in August, 1948.

"(It) was a pact that rejected the traditional values of French Canada that held Quebec's artistic community in a stranglehold," said Smart during a talk on her book in the Arts Building on November 11. "It introduced a radical newness to the Quebec art scene, placing man at the centre of the world view rather than God."

But when historians have written on the Refus global and its ensuing controversy, Smart said, it's usually the eight men involved in the movement who are remembered, like famed painters Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle, while the women have been virtually ignored.

By writing her book, Smart hopes the seven women -- Madeleine Arbour, Marcelle Ferron, Muriel Guilbault, Louise and Thérèse Renaud, Françoise Riopelle and Françoise Sullivan -- will obtain the historical weight they deserve.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that it was the women, more than the men, that carried on the revolution," said the author, whose book has been nominated for a Governor General's Award. "My book is intended as a celebration of these seven women, to emphasize their courage and daring."

As a group, the artists became largely known as automatists, because of their post-Refus global use of abstraction in their art, similar to France's surrealists of the same period. "But unlike the surrealists," Smart specified, "women automatists were fully active and visible. And I would argue that the automatists were far more radical in their art than the surrealists."

It took Smart seven years to complete her book, which she wrote while teaching Quebec literature, Canadian and women's studies at Carleton University. She said it was a good thing that six of the seven women involved are still alive today, and she was able to interview them, since they kept almost none of the written exchanges from the Refus global period.

"The men, however, were constantly writing and keeping their letters," Smart said, "as though they wanted to be remembered by history."

As for the male-dominated press of that period, they too did little to chronicle the women's part in the movement. "They disapproved of the women's involvement and saw them as dilettantes," Smart said. "Yet [the women] were the essence of the revolution."

Within the group, the women were said to be equal members, but Smart questioned if that was truly possible considering the period. "Some of Borduas's own writing suggested a hierarchy and he was accused by Riopelle of being paternalistic."

And while it was not a popular term in the 1950s, the Refus global women could easily be considered feminists -- although Smart stressed they did not label themselves that way. "Rather than focus on the differences [of the sexes], they took equality foremost," she said. "They saw automatism as a way of life and not just a political engagement."

The Refus global also has a McGill connection, since one of its members was Bruno Cormier, a criminologist and psychoanalyst who founded McGill's forensic clinic in 1955 and taught at the University until 1987.

His wife, Ruby Cormier, attended Smart's talk and said that when her husband took part in the movement he was barred from returning to the Université de Montréal, where he had studied medicine.

"He was seen as a radical by the U of M," she said, "and that's how he ended up at McGill."

Smart's talk was sponsored by the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women and the Quebec studies program. Smart's presentation was one of a series of events organized by the Quebec studies program earlier this month that dealt with the impact of the Refus global.