Refus global remains a landmark text in the artistic, political, cultural and social history of Quebec. Works that resonate so strongly three quarters of a century after their release are very rare. Moreover, creators, researchers and historians continue to examine it, interpret it and question its place in history. An undeniable sign of its value as of its historical significance.
This is particularly the case of Sophie Dubois, whose doctoral thesis, submitted in 2014 to the Department of French Language Literature at the University of Montreal, was published three years later in a book entitled Refus global: History of partial acceptance.
“My view of the manifesto goes against the grain of the discourse reducing the Refus global to a political text against the Great Darkness, Duplessis, clericalism,” she says. It is read more sociopolitically and much less artistically. Whereas the text in the original collection is an artistic manifesto. »
From this statement, two words must be remembered: text and collection. Because Refus global is in fact the first of a series of eight texts that form this collection accompanied by illustrations from the Automatists.
A lexicon entitled “Comments on Common Words”, three plays by playwright Claude Gauvreau, an essay by future psychiatrist Bruno Cormier on the evolution of form, a lecture by choreographer Françoise Sullivan on dance, and an essay by Fernand Leduc follow. the text of the manifesto.
“If you read Borduas’s text next to those of Claude Gauvreau or Françoise Sullivan, you read it again like an artistic text,” believes Ms. Dubois.
The manifesto was launched on Monday, August 9, 1948 at the Librairie Tranquille, a famous shop at 67 Sainte-Catherine Street West whose owner, Henri Tranquille, is known for his avant-garde thinking and his refusal to obey the policies of the clergy. blacklisting of certain works, including those of Balzac, Zola, etc.
Several media covered the launch of the collection and commented on its content, but a few weeks later, a thunderclap, Borduas was fired from the École du Meubles where he was teaching. Media interest then took another turn. “The knot that makes Refus global a subversive text is more the dismissal of Borduas than the text itself”, believes Sophie Dubois.
Twelve years later, Borduas died on February 22, 1960, between that of Maurice Duplessis (September 7, 1959) and the election of the Liberals of Jean Lesage (June 22, 1960). That’s all it takes for some to identify him as the bridge between the Great Darkness and the Quiet Revolution.
However, what the Automatistes refuse is not only the Great Darkness, pleads Sophie Dubois. “Their refusal is, precisely, more global. They refuse all Christian civilization since the 13th century. A civilization based on reason, intention and the idea of doing something “for the purpose of”… and which therefore refuses any kind of emotionality, sensitivity, spontaneity and intuition which is the way to think of the signatories. »
Filmmaker Manon Barbeau also questioned the manifesto in her documentary Les enfants de Refus global (ONF) released in 1998. Daughter of the painter Marcel Barbeau, one of the signatories of the document, she lifts the veil on the sometimes very negative impact the children of the signatories of their freedom creed.
“Some of them, including my brother François, were extremely weakened psychologically,” she said in an interview. My brother was one of the sacrificed in history. I wanted to make him exist through my film, to give him the floor. That was my first motivation. I went to meet other children of the Automatistes because I needed to understand if I was the only one to have experienced it this way. »
In a very powerful passage, the filmmaker confronts her father on the parental abandonment that her brother François and she experienced. Manon Barbeau’s daughter, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, also tackles this story in the novel La femme qui flee whose central character is Suzanne Meloche, her maternal grandmother.
What does Manon Barbeau think of the legacy of Refus global? “If we’re in a free society today, it doesn’t just depend on the signatories and the manifesto. But it was still a first foot in the door, she replies. It was an open-mindedness, a desire to live differently. »
On the other hand, the result has sometimes been the opposite of what was intended. “While the manifesto and the signatories wanted to end the dogmas of religion, some have made religious delirium. My brother has seen Our Lady speak to him for years. »
At the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ), curator of modern art Anne-Marie Bouchard discusses the manifesto enthusiastically, saying it piqued her curiosity early on.
Today, she sees things differently than just from the revolutionary angle. Perhaps there was a desire to attract attention…
“Making a splash is a way of getting people talking and positioning yourself about certain things,” she says. We no longer wait for others to watch us. We force them to do it. This is how the Dadaists and Surrealists operated: with manifestos to enter the media space in a spectacular way. »
Furthermore, Ms. Bouchard believes that it is time to broaden the recognition of artists of the time as progressive vectors of Quebec society. Of course, there is the Prisme d’Yeux movement around Alfred Pellan which also launched a manifesto, written by Jacques de Tonnancour, on February 4, 1948. And others…
She gives as an example the painter Helen McNicoll, who died at the age of 35 from diabetes, Louise Gadbois, who “received Pellan and Borduas at her home”, or even the Jewish artists of Montreal, including Rita Briansky, who “became transmission of the modernity learned in their art classes, in Europe”.
A rereading of Refus global does not mean that the Automatists are tossed aside. They’re here for good! In fact, they should be showcased much more, says Claude Gosselin, general and artistic director of the Center international d’art contemporain de Montréal.
“It is curious that the text is read, seen and discussed more than the works themselves,” he says. Because the Refus global is precisely born of the practice and works of the Automatistes. Not the contrary ! A room must be created in a museum so that their works can be seen on a permanent basis. They are the founding members of modern Quebec, and no reserved space in a museum testifies to this. »
Finally, Sophie Dubois emphasizes the extent to which the text retains all of its meaning.
“It wasn’t folklorized as a text from the past,” she said. Refus global has the advantage of being a text that remains present. Because of the theme of the revolt against the authorities in place which is universal, timeless, it is not frozen in a past. »
