Living Art: Individual and Collective Creativity: Becoming Paul-mile Borduas [Paperback]

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

“In this original essay, extremely well researched and illustrated by several of Borduas’ paintings, J.-P. Warren uses multiple perspectives to bring us closer to the experience of Borduas’ contemporaries, inviting the reader to deeply renew his understanding of the period.” Daniel Poitras, Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, Volume 65, No 1, Summer 2011, p. 115–118. “Clear and instructive, but not without a lyrical and sensitive tone, Warren's prose is that of a scientist who commands and loves his subject.” Louis Cornelier, “Borduas avant Borduas,” Le Devoir, October 8, 2011.

"Clear and instructive, but not without a lyrical and sensitive tone, Warren's prose is that of a scientist who commands and loves his subject.” —Le Devoir

Steven Urquhartis an Associate professor of French at the University of Lethbridge. His research focuses on Quebec literature and culture, and translation of texts into English. He has previously translated two novels and one collection of short stories from the original French into English.Jean-Philippe Warrenis a Canadial#Æ