Chronology

     The chronology section of the site is divided into five parts: "Youth / Training / Teaching"; "The Automatist Years"; "New York"; "Paris" and "Posthumous Tribute". The overlapping of certain activities by Borduas (for example his years of teaching alongside his continuing artistic practice) makes this categorization by period necessary.

     This presentation offers several types of information: references to his personal, academic, professorial, and artistic life, and the notation of certain events outside of his career.

     This chronology was made possible thanks mainly to the works of the following authors: Bernard Teyssèdre (1), Laurier Lacroix (2), Nicole Boily (3), Françoise Le Gris (4), François-Marc Gagnon (5) André-G. Bourassa, Jean Fisette and Gilles Lapointe (6). Whenever there is conflicting information between the quoted sources, we have indicated it. Furthermore, on problematic issues, we do refer either to the documents of the official institutional archives or to those in the Borduas archives (7). The complete bibliographical references will appear in the "Bibliography" section of the catalogue raisonné.

     Finally, for all our efforts this chronology remains incomplete. However, we believe that the significant amount and nature of the material this site contains constitute an important reference source for students, researchers, scholars, and those with an interest in the life of Paul-Émile Borduas.

Louise Dupont-Tanguay, researcher.


    1. Bernard Teyssèdre, Fernand Leduc, peintre et théoricien du surréalisme à Montréal, La Barre du Jour, nos 17-20, janvier-août 1969, p. 224-270.

    2. Laurier Lacroix, Borduas et les automatistes : Montréal 1942-1955, catalogue d'exposition, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (Paris), Musée d'art contemporain (Montréal), 1972, p. 21-51.

    3. Nicole Boily, Borduas : l'homme et l'œuvre, Études françaises, vol. 8, no 3, août 1972, p. 309-330.

    4. Françoise Le Gris, Ozias Leduc et Paul-Émile Borduas, Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1973, p. 97-126.

    5. François-Marc Gagnon, Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960). Biographie critique et analyse de l'œuvre, Fides, 1978; Paul-Émile Borduas, catalogue d'exposition, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, 1988.

    6. André-G. Bourassa, Jean Fisette et Gilles Lapointe, Paul-Émile Borduas. Écrits I, Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1987, p. 23-47.

    7. A collection of archives, composed by the personal papers and the correspondence of the artist, kindly entrusted to the State by Mrs. Gabrielle Borduas, was classified and indexed in 1971-1972 by Pierre Théberge, then curator of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada. A copy on microfiche is available at the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art of Concordia University, as well as in the libraries of the Canadian Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, as well as in the UQÀM Archives: The following documents followed by a "T" classification mark.