Additional Images

Provenance:

Estate of the artist
Private Collection, Montreal

Literature:

Letter by Marcelle Ferron, Paris 1954, quoted in Danielle, Diane and Babalou, “Scattered Memories,” in Marcelle Ferron, Simon Blais, (ed.), Éditions Simon Blais, Montreal, 2008, pages 42-43.

Marcelle Ferron, directed by Monique Croullière (1989: Montreal, Quebec: Office national du Film du Canada, 1989), DVD

Réal Lussier, Marcelle Ferron, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, 2000, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca

Note:

“I paint a lot, it’s what makes me feel most alive.” – Marcelle Ferron

Frequently, works by Automatiste painter Marcelle Ferron are described as forceful, strong, even muscular. Yet Ferron herself would have rejected these descriptors for much of her work, particularly works from this period. In fact, works such as this lot carry a different tone entirely - focusing not on power, but on a kind of enduring luminosity.

An avid risk taker, Ferron was an artist forever eager to explore the unexpected. According to family members, “she forced herself to paint in very tall format because it was difficult and represented a challenge” given certain physical limitations.

When Ferron returned to painting after spending several years working with glass, art historian Réal Lussier said, “she had not lost her fire.” In La Rousse (No. 52), Ferron creates a maelstrom of black and fiery oranges which emanate from an almost liquid surface. One can wonder if Lussier wasn’t actually looking at La Rousse (No. 52) when he made his statement.

While Ferron’s gestural compositions often appear as though they might spill out beyond the confines of the canvas, La Rousse (No. 52) resists an existence beyond its borders. Rather, it is an invitation to enter, a door to open.

In a documentary produced by Monique Crouillère in 1989, Ferron is asked how she knows when a painting is finished. Ferron replies that she is not the one who decides when a painting is done. She describes herself as the painting’s slave. Paintings, she contends, know how to defend themselves.

Ferron also emphasizes the importance of the relationship between lines and masses. It is this balance which, to her, is the most fragile, and also the most important, aspect of her paintings. A few drops of paint can hold a work together.

While creating these tall, vertical compositions, Ferron was inspired by symbolic beings. These so-called “bonnes femmes” served to guide her on her quest to find her identity as a woman and as an artist.

Among her many achievements, Ferron was the first woman to receive the Paul Émile Borduas Prize in 1983. Two years later, she was made Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec by the Quebec government. In 2000, the same year Marcelle Ferron: une retrospective was presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, she was given the title of Grand officier de l’Ordre national du Québec.