Lot 31: Jean-Paul Armand Mousseau 1927 - 1991 Canadian oil

Jean-Paul Armand Mousseau 1927 - 1991 Canadian oil on canvas Bleu-éclats 48 x 30 inches 121.9 x 76.2 centimeters signed and dated 1955 and on verso inscribed ""583-57-8"" and ""R14 24 244"" Literature:Claude Roubillard, Panorama of Montreal Painting, City of Montreal Parks Department, 1956, listed page 6 Norman Jeffrey, ""'Blue Explosion' Highlight of St. Helen's Isle Show"", The Gazette, June 5, 1956, page 23, reproduced page 23 ""Local Art on View at St. Helen's Isle"", The Montreal Star, June 5, 1956, reproduced page 8 Rodolphe de Repentigny, ""Aperçus de notre galerie d'été"", La Presse, June 30, 1956 Pierre Landry, Francine Couture and François-Marc Gagnon, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, 1996, essay by François-Marc Gagnon, page 36 Provenance:Acquired directly from the Artist by a Private Collector, Quebec Private Collection, Toronto Exhibited:City of Montreal Parks Department, Restaurant Hélène-de-Champlain, Montreal, Panorama de la peinture montréalaise / Panorama of Montreal Painting, June 4 - September 3, 1956, catalogue #47 This spectacular 1955 oil on canvas by Jean-Paul Mousseau boldly exemplifies the quest for freedom and autonomy which characterized the social and artistic history of Quebec leading up to the Quiet Revolution. In describing this work, Mousseau related that he assigned the work a descriptive title, but stated, "I wasn't thinking of an explosion when I did it.....It has a feeling, it is a matter of form and colour and movement. But as to its meaning - even me, I do not know what it is. It is a free expression of colour, light and form." In a Post-Automatist manner, the forms of his composition had become more structured without becoming strongly geometrical. Mousseau was the youngest member of the Automatists, and his work stems from these roots, but he went beyond Paul-Émile Borduas's "codes" of spontaneity. Mousseau remained very grateful for the crucial lessons he learned from Automatists Borduas and Fernand Leduc; however, as François-Marc Gagnon notes, "Mousseau fut souvent, et par la force des choses, un automatiste réfractaire. (Mousseau was often, from necessity, a refractory Automatist.)" We thank the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal for information obtained from the Jean-Paul Mousseau Fonds.