Chiguer art contemporain is honored to present an exhibition dedicated to Françoise Sullivan in collaboration with Galerie Simon Blais. Born in Montreal on June 10, 1923, Françoise Sullivan is a leading figure in modern art in Quebec and Canada. A pioneer of modern dance, a co-founder of the Automatist movement, and a signatory of the 1948 Refus Global manifesto, her work and commitment have contributed to the rise of modern Quebec.
The exhibition offers a panorama of Françoise Sullivan’s artistic trajectory, including photolithographs from Dance in the Snow, a series of improvised solo dances photographed by Maurice Perron in 1947 and 1948, pastels created at the turn of the millennium, recent paintings, and a canvas from the Charlevoix series (1999).
We will predominantly feature Françoise Sullivan’s pastels. Although not widely known to the public, these pastel works, spiritually close to her canvas productions, captivate with their tactile qualities and vivid colors. In Sullivan’s pastels as in her paintings, there is “something resembling a first impression, that of the body and movement, and something that holds sway, that of blood and rhythm”. (Louise Déry and Monique Régimbald-Zeiber)
A versatile and prolific artist, Sullivan has explored a variety of mediums throughout her career, from dance to sculpture, conceptual art, performance, and painting. Embracing an expressive and sensitive approach to abstraction, Françoise Sullivan is driven by the belief that painting must primarily be experienced, viewing creation as an improvised dance through which primal and primitive energies are released. This intuitive conception of art is reflected in her works, marked by rhythm, gesture, movement, and vibration. In her canvases as in her pastels, the artist succeeds in transforming color into emotion.
A teacher in the Department of Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal for over 30 years, Françoise Sullivan won the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize in 1987 and the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation Prize in 2008. She was made a Knight of the Order of Quebec in 2002 and received the Order of Montreal medal in 2017.
