Marcelle Ferron was born in Louiseville, Quebec, in 1924, and died in Montreal in 2001. Briefly trained at the École des beaux-arts de Québec under Jean-Paul Lemieux, she left the institution before completing her studies and moved to Montreal, where she quickly became integrated into the circle of the Automatistes. This group of artists played a decisive role in the emergence of abstraction in Quebec. In 1948, Ferron co-signed Refus global alongside, among others, Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean Paul Riopelle, Françoise Sullivan, Pierre Gauvreau, Fernand Leduc, and Marcel Barbeau. This founding gesture firmly established her name among the major figures of Quebec’s artistic modernity.
In 1949, she presented her first solo exhibition at the Librairie Tranquille on Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal, one of the few venues dedicated to avant-garde painting at the time. In 1953, she moved to Paris with her three daughters, where she remained for thirteen years. This period was marked by increased exposure of her work through numerous exhibitions and a decisive stage in her practice: her training in stained glass at Michel Blum’s studio in Paris. Although based in France, she received a significant grant from the Canada Council for the Arts in 1957. In 1961, she won the silver medal at the São Paulo Biennial, a major international recognition. However, her left-wing political convictions had concrete consequences: in 1966, her association with an anti-Franco activist led to her expulsion from France.
Back in Quebec, Ferron continued her artistic career and taught at Laval University. She created several public works, including the skylight at the Champ-de-Mars metro station in Montreal, now considered one of her most iconic projects. Her contribution to the arts community was officially recognized when she was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1972 and then, in 1983, when she received the Paul-Émile-Borduas Award, the highest distinction in the visual arts awarded by the Quebec government.
Throughout her career, Marcelle Ferron took part in numerous major group exhibitions, both in Canada and internationally. The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal devoted two major retrospectives to her work, in 1970 and 2000.
