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RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne Canadian Art Review

Marcelle Ferron, Le Droit d’être rebelle : Correspondance de Marcelle Ferron avec Jacques, Madeleine, Paul et Thérèse Ferron, textes choisis et présentés par Babalou Hamelin, Montréal, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2016, 621 pp. 7 b/w illus., $ 34.95 paper isbn 9782764624562 Ray Ellenwood

Volume 42, Number 1, 2017

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1040849ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1040849ar

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Publisher(s) UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Association d'art des universités du Canada)

ISSN 0315-9906 (print) 1918-4778 (digital)

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Cite this review Ellenwood, R. (2017). Review of [Marcelle Ferron, Le Droit d’être rebelle : Correspondance de Marcelle Ferron avec Jacques, Madeleine, Paul et Thérèse Ferron, textes choisis et présentés par Babalou Hamelin, Montréal, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2016, 621 pp. 7 b/w illus., $ 34.95 paper isbn 9782764624562]. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 42(1), 95–97. https://doi.org/10.7202/1040849ar

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This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ it becomes clear that the previous ones were mere steps leading up to Marcelle Ferron this final pitch to the jury about the Le Droit d’être rebelle : Correspondance de construction of liberal subjectivities Marcelle Ferron avec Jacques, Madeleine, in the early twentieth-century city. Paul et Thérèse Ferron, textes choisis et There is a nice critique of pictorial- présentés par Babalou Hamelin ism here, positioning it within the Montréal, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2016 larger context of photography in the 621 pp. 7 b/w illus. late nineteenth and early twentieth $ 34.95 paper isbn 9782764624562 centuries, as well as within the broad- er development of the modern city. Sekula defined photography as “mod- Ray Ellenwood ernity run riot,” and in this final chap- ter and in the conclusion, Bassnet Ma vie est un fouillis, un gargantues- had married and started a family. foregrounds the fundamental link que désordre où la seule continuité a While Riopelle’s career took off between modernity and photography, été ma peinture. very quickly in Paris (by the mid-1950s no mater the later’s purpose. — Marcelle Ferron he was a rising star, internationally In the end, the author makes a Marcelle Ferron is a major figure in acclaimed, selling well), Ferron need- strong case not just about the role of the history of modern Canadian ab- ed a few years to be recognized, as her photography in shaping a modern stract art, and before discussing this painting became bolder and more Toronto, but in shaping its modern exchange of leters with her brothers assured, with its characteristic broad, citizens as well. And she has bigger and sisters, selected and edited by her sweeping strokes of a palete knife ambitions which she begins to fulfill daughter, it might be useful to take that sometimes seemed larger than with this book: to convince the read- a very quick look at her remarkable the artist herself. But by 1957, she was er that photography, the modern city, career. presenting solo exhibitions in increas- and modern subjectivity are entwined In 1947, discouraged by her studies ingly important galleries in Paris, and in ways that need to be carefully at the École des Beaux-Arts in Quebec was showing with the likes of Riopelle, examined not only across a variety of City, Ferron moved to Montreal, met Borduas, and Sam Francis in group photographic genres by photograph- Paul-Émile Borduas, and began to fre- exhibitions on two continents. In 1961 ic historians, but also by historians quent the group of painters, writers, her work was included at the Sixth who are trying to beter understand dancer/choreographers, photograph- Bienal de Sao Paulo, and in March modernity itself. ¶ ers, and designers who were dubbed of 1962 she was preparing for major les automatistes by journalists at the exhibitions in Milan, Copenhagen, Jill Delaney is a Senior Archivist, Photography, time. In 1948, she signed their well- and Spoleto. Soon she was geting Library and Archives Canada. — [email protected] known manifesto, Refus global, with its more and more shows and commis- call for social and artistic liberation sions in Montreal and had begun 1. Classic works on this subject include, Vic- through generous spontaneity and experimenting with new techniques tor Burgin, “Looking at Photographs,” in Thinking Photography, ed. Victor Burgin (London, 1982); its demonstration of how surrealist for an old medium: stained glass. Martha Rosler, “In, Around and Aferthoughts automatism could be expressed in Those experiments would solidify the (On Documentary Photography),” in Three Works non-figurative art. The publication second period of her career, when she (Halifax, 1981); John Tagg, The Burden of Representa- tion (London, 1988); Abigail Solomon-Godeau, was a moment of euphoria, the cul- moved back to Montreal and began “Who Is Speaking Thus. Some Questions about mination of several years of ground- work on some magnificent architec- Documentary Photography,” in Photography at the breaking creative activity, and was tural installations of stained glass for Dock (Minneapolis, 1991); and James R. Ryan, Pic- met by a strong negative reaction by such public buildings as Montreal’s turing Empire: Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire (Chicago, 1997). church and state due to its anti-clerical Champ de Mars subway station and 2. The edited volume by Carol Payne and tone. The energy continued for a few the court-house in Granby. The Musée Andrea Kunard provides a good cross-section of years of debate and demonstration, d’art contemporain de Montréal held recent Canadian approaches: Carol Payne and Andrea Kunard, eds., The Cultural Work of Photog- before the group began to disperse a major retrospective of her work in raphy in Canada (Montreal and Kingston, 2011); see as some of them, such as Thérèse the spring of 1970, and another in also, for example, Carol Williams, Framing the West: Renaud, Jean Paul and Françoise Rio- 2000, shortly before her death. By Race, Gender and the Photographic Frontier in the Pacific Northwest (Oxford, 2003); Martha Langford, Scis- pelle, and Fernand Leduc, made their the end of her life she had become a sors, Paper, Stone: Expression of Memory in Contemporary way to Paris and New York. Marcelle much-loved, outspoken public figure, Photographic Art (Montreal and Kingston, 2007); Ferron would follow, arriving in Paris and her funeral drew enough people and Penny Cousineau-Levine, Faking Death. Can- adian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination in 1953, but before then, like other to fill the large Saint-Viateur church in (Montreal and Kingston, 2003). women signatories of Refus global, she Outremont.

racar 42 (2017) 1 : 73–106 95 ⇢ Marcelle Ferron, Le Droit d’être rebelle and berating each other in turn. Le Je viens de perdre mon procès. J’ai été Of course, such a hurried over- droit d’être rebelle (note how the rebel accusée d’athéisme et tout a été dit. view of a life is only the tip of an is singular and feminine) presents Douze ans de ma vie ont été balayés. iceberg of personal details, capping leters writen over a long period, Inutile de te dire que l’on ne m’accorde a mass of incidents that are basic from 1944 to 1985, and in her contri- pas un sou de pension… me voilà dans to the equilibrium of the struc- butions Marcelle shows she can hold la rue avec comme tout moyen d’exis- ture, though largely unseen. Baba- her own among the published auth- tence ma maudite peinture. lou Hamelin’s selection of leters ors in her family. In fact, early reviews exchanged by Marcelle Ferron with of this book seem to have discussed it Donc, je retourne en France — je ne her brothers and sisters affords us a mainly as a literary publication, with veux pas crever dans ce maudit pays que je hais. (368) glimpse of that sub-stratum, much one commentator, Jérémy Laniel, as a personal journal or an autobiog- cited on the publisher’s website, Over the next half-dozen years she raphy might do, but with a special insisting that it reads like an epis- works herself into exhaustion, longs quality that comes from the dynam- tolary novel. The first two hundred for her children, fears they are ics of an exchange between extra- pages especially are a very candid unhappy in Canada, and goes through ordinary people. To my knowledge, account of three complicated sisters moments of suicidal depression. But there is no artistic family in Canadian going through marriage, pregnancy, she can still write, in October 1962: history quite like the closely knit and childbirth, and all that follows, good Reçu des intérêts vis-à-vis de ma pein- brilliant Ferron clan. Jacques, Mar- and bad. But the book is also fascin- ture très réconfortants — entre autres, celle’s brother, was a medical doctor, ating reading for art lovers because le directeur de Sao Paulo qui m’écrit as was their brother Paul, who also it reveals so much not only about que je suis le peintre qui l’intéresse le sometimes acted as Marcelle’s busi- the progress of a woman artist’s plus dans la peinture canadienne. (462, ita- lics in the original) ness manager. Jacques Ferron’s prac- career, but about what was going on tice sustained his real career as a writ- behind the scenes. Babalou Hamelin This was also the year when the er of plays, tales, novels, and essays. explains in her preface that, for edi- French critic Charles Delloye organ- Always an activist for Quebec auton- torial and personal reasons, the let- ized a large exhibition in Spoleto omy, he was also, with Paul, one of ters are selected (from many deposit- including twenty-five French-Can- the founders of the Rhinoceros Party. ed pell-mell in a wooden trunk kept adian artists, as well as a smaller but Madeleine was the author of a novel by Marcelle, as well as others found important exhibition in Rome devot- and three collections of tales, as well in public and private archives), and ed to Automatist painters. Ferron as a memoir on the mother of the that she has occasionally deleted pas- reports on this with great enthusi- family, who died young of tuberculo- sages. One can understand why, given asm, but even this sense of excite- sis and became, years later, a figure the complex and raw emotional situ- ment is qualified with her statement of controversy between Jacques and ations involved. in a leter around the same time: “…le Madeleine. Madeleine also co-auth- When Ferron went to Paris in 1953, monde actuel accepte, mais que par ored an essay on the Beauce writen she brought her three young daugh- apparence, qu’une femme peintre with her husband, Robert Cliche, a ters with her, having separated from puisse exister. Il faudrait être tout et well-known lawyer and political her husband, René Hamelin. Her ear- ce n’est pas humainement possible” activist in Quebec, and an eternal ly leters from Paris are full of details (462). She carries on, however, and in gadfly to Jacques. Thérèse was devel- about the complexities of finding 1965 Jacques Ferron receives a sudden oping a reputation as a journalist, places to live and time to work, given announcement from the sister whom notably with Le Magazine Mclean, at the her limited budget based mainly on a he had called, since her teens, “La time of her early death. small and precarious allowance from vieille folle:” Several editions of Jacques Fer- Hamelin. She seems to be manag- … pour moi, la seule chance de pou- ron’s leters have already been pub- ing career, family, and even love life voir survivre économiquement pour lished, including Laisse courir ta plume reasonably well until she is forced to pouvoir travailler, ce sera un travail (Lanctot 1998), an edition of early contest first a trumped-up charge of d’équipe avec architectes, ingénieurs. Je fonce là-dedans — en plus du verre. leters to his sisters, showing a very sedition that almost gets her expelled (C’est très excitant de travailler ainsi = feisty young Marcelle, and Une famille from France, and then the efforts hier j’ai dû choisir 8 couleurs sur 3 000 extraordinaire (Leméac 2012), with cor- of her husband to divorce her and et le tout en transparence — j’ai l’im- respondence between Jacques, Mad- take custody of the children. To her pression de pousser toute mon énergie eleine, and Robert Cliche from 1946 despair, she loses the custody batle dans mes yeux.) to 1960. These are people who write and writes to Borduas (then in Paris) Je mets à point une nouvelle technique combatively and with sharp wit tem- from Montreal (where she had gone pour murale opaque — si je réussis, je pered by deep affection, encouraging for the trial) in December 1957: travaillerai avec des architectes d’ici

96 Reviews | Recensions parmi les plus fous. Tout ça pour te dire que je n’en suis pas à la compro- Gregory T. Clark mission. Art in a Time of War : The Master of Morgan

Excuse l’écriture, mais je suis dans 453 and Manuscript Illumination in Paris mon lit — il est 6 h ½ a.m. J’ai au fond during the English Occupation (1419–1435) une vie austère — entrecoupée d’ex- Toronto : Pontifical Institute of cès — vivre seule, faire face à une Medieval Studies, 2016 finance toujours mitée n’est pas de xxviii, 388 pp. 253 colour illus. tout repos. Insécurité totale qui me $ 125 cloth isbn 9780888441973 pousse et me stimule — c’est un vice de construction comme d’autres sont avares. Je suis dépourvue de toute pos- sibilité de possession. J’ai une mentali- Jamie Kemp té de pauvre. (519) Gregory T. Clark’s Art in a Time of War: dated ca. 1425–30). Over a decade later She eventually did return to painting The Master of Morgan 453 and Manuscript in 1982, John T. Plummer, then Curator on canvas, when her life was more Illumination in Paris during the English of Medieval and Renaissance Manu- secure afer her return to Montreal Occupation (1419–1435) is an impres- scripts at the Morgan Library, extended in 1966. sive new analysis and catalogue of the painter’s body of work further to Le droit d’être rebelle can be seen illuminators of French Books of include another Book of Hours, Mor- within the context of several publica- Hours in the first half of the fifeenth gan 1004 (now dated ca. 1415–25). He tions such as the 2014 bbc series, The century. It is a new addition to the also refined Meiss’s discussion of the Story of Women and Art, with its account Pontifical Institute of Medieval Stud- artist’s style by highlighting the shif- of the difficulties for women artists ies’ “Studies and Texts” series. In this ing, “protean” qualities of his work. He through the ages, notably for Geor- book, Clark presents the first compre- renamed the artist the Master of Mor- gia O’Keeffe in the New York scene of hensive study of the Master of Morgan gan 453 afer the manuscript that con- the 1920s; or Joan Mitchell, Lady Paint- 453, a manuscript painter active in tains the largest number of miniatures er (Knopf 2011), by Patricia Albers, Paris and Amiens during the English by this painter (13).² with its argument that, a generation occupation of Paris (1419–35) and up Gregory T. Clark entered the story later, Mitchell had trouble emer- to 1450. By presenting a stylistic analy- of the Master of Morgan 453 as Plum- ging from the shadow of her male sis of six Books of Hours atributed to mer’s PhD student at Princeton abstract-expressionist friends in New the Master of Morgan 453 in the con- (begun 1981, completed 1988) and as York, and of her famous lover, Rio- text of Parisian illumination and its eventual Assistant Curator of the Mor- pelle, in France. Marcelle Ferron was Netherlandish influences, Clark maps gan Library (1983–89). Clark’s doctor- not alone in her struggles, but her the complex history and output of a al dissertation continued the project rebellion against physical, financial, Master painter he describes as “prob- begun by Meiss and Plummer by fur- societal, and moralizing constraints ably the most eccentric and inventive ther defining the character and style of seems particularly remarkable. When illuminator to work in Paris, perhaps the Master of Morgan 453 and atribut- Manon Barbeau’s film Les enfants de even in France, between the demise ing to him the frontispiece of the Brus- Refus global gave journalists an excuse of the Limbourg brothers and the rise sels Grandes chroniques (Royal Library to accuse the Automatist “revolu- of Jean Fouquet” (296). of Belgium, Ms. 1, ca. 1415–20) (296). tionaries” of caring more about their The identification and study of the During this time, Clark also began liberty than their children, Marcelle Master of Morgan 453 began in 1968 to collaborate on what would even- Ferron’s three daughters were quick when Millard Meiss isolated a series of tually become the website “Beyond to set the record straight in solidarity miniatures produced by a painter with Use: A Digital Database of Variant with their mother, through an open a distinctive Netherlandish aesthetic Readings in Late Medieval Books of leter published in Voir (March–April in a Book of Hours atributed to the Hours,” which expanded and digitized 1998). Behind that response lies the Boucicaut Master (Morgan 1000, ca. Plummer’s hand-writen recordings reality disclosed in the leters of Le 1415–20).¹ Afer this initial identifica- of calendars, litanies, and prayers (the droit d’être rebelle. ¶ tion, Meiss expanded the list of manu- “Obsecro te” and the “O intemerata”) for scripts atributed to the painter, at the purposes of identifying French Professor emeritus of York University, Ray that time named the Master of Morgan Horae.³ Ellenwood has writen a book and several articles 1000, to include two other Books of Afer a career of publishing many on Montreal’s Automatist movement, and has Hours, specifically the Hours of Char- articles and several books on fif- translated the group’s manifesto, Refus global, and other Automatist texts. lote of Savoy (Morgan 1004, now dat- teenth-century manuscript illumin- — [email protected] ed ca. 1415–25) and Morgan 453 (now ation in France and northern Europe,

racar 42 (2017) 1 : 73–106 97