The Intersection of Materiality and Mattering: Acrylic Paint and Montreal Hard-Edge Painting Jessica Veevers A Thesis In the Department Of Art History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Art History) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada January 2020 ©Jessica Veevers, 2020 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Jessica Veevers Entitled: The Intersection of Materiality and Mattering: Acrylic Paint and Montreal Hard-Edge Painting and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy (Art History) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Haidee Wasson External Examiner Dr. Mark Cheetham External to Program Dr. Mark Sussman Examiner Dr. Steven Stowell Examiner Dr. Edith-Anne Pageot Thesis Supervisor Dr. Anne Whitelaw Approved by Dr. Kristina Huneault, Graduate Program Director January 10, 2020 Dr. Rebecca Taylor Duclos, Dean Faculty of Fine Arts iii ABSTRACT The Intersection of Materiality and Mattering: Acrylic Paint and Montreal’s Hard-Edge Painting Jessica Veevers, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2020 Set in Montreal with the advent of Hard-Edge painting and the invention of acrylic paint, this thesis takes a critical look at the relationship between materiality and mattering. The Hard-Edge painters, Guido Molinari, Claude Tousignant and Yves Gaucher undertook a new medium to express their new way of seeing and encountering the world and they did so in a way that was unique from other contemporaneous abstract painters. And that new medium, acrylic paint, contributed to their vision and capability to do so. Examining Hard-Edge paint through the vantage of materiality and materialist frameworks, and considering the role of acrylic paint on a new level, takes advantage of the opportunity to confront the presumption of overt statements of authorial completion and destabilizes the assumption of their statement being solely artist- determined. Unlike some contemporary art, whose materiality is more obviously fluid, Hard- Edge paintings look like they are stable, but they are not. If object-stability is demonstrated to be untrue of Hard-Edge painting, then we have an opportunity to examine the entirety of art’s history through a new lens. This thesis proposes a new way of understanding the relationship between making, material, epistemology and ontology and proposes that when we understand Hard-Edge painting as object- fluid, we then understand the breadth of art history as a mattering whose “objects” play less of a primary role and whose materiality is instrumental. If making cannot be defined by the ideation of the artist then neither can the “object” that is made. Examining the influence of acrylic paint over this one instance of making in Montreal in the late modern period contributes to an understanding of making and continued mattering that has consequences for Hard-Edge painting, which matters to the late modern epoch of a city and its people and their aspirations, and also to how we classify, sort, narrate, and perpetuate our art. If we continue to put Hard-Edge painting iii into a finite category we undermine what it is capable of doing now. This thesis highlights the consequence of understanding artworks as the products of ideas and thus materially (object-) stable. I demonstrate that they are object-fluid and that this understanding will help us understand art’s history differently and be better art stewards. iv Acknowledgments This thesis was a mere kernel of an idea when I proposed it to Dr. Anne Whitelaw many years ago and her critical eye has helped to make this argument everything that it has become. I would not be here without her strategic questions, talent for looking at things from so many perspectives, infinite attention to detail, and her tireless ability to read my arguments over and over until the threads were all tied together. Thank you, Anne. I had the good fortune of taking part in Dr. Kristina Huneault’s continental philosophy course during the second year of my doctoral studies and it was foundational to my philosophical outlook here. Thank you Dr. Huneault, your course marked a turn in my approach and a critical engagement with materialist theory. Dr. Steven Stowell generously facilitated an independent study with his anthropological material early in this PhD venture and his feedback on the ideas I was working with at the time were fundamental to the work I moved forward into. His questions helped me to challenge and answer mine; thank you, Dr. Stowell: an idea challenged is an idea better argued. Along with Dr. Stowell, Dr. Edith-Anne Pageot has helped to guide this research since the Thesis Proposal. Thank you, Dr. Pageot; your early questions about archival research methodology and gender politics in relation to abstract painting were incredibly helpful. A huge thank you is owed to my external examiners, Mark Sussman and Mark Cheetham. I am fortunate to have had your comments, feedback, and critique; they have made this final draft stronger. Some key institutions and people contributed to this research in indispensible ways. The Guido Molinari Foundation, Montréal, provided me with access to their storage vault for the examination of numerous Molinari paintings spanning the entirety of his career. Thank you, Margarida Mafra and Gilles Dagneault; I appreciate your willingness to provide me with key pieces of information that could not be found elsewhere and the generosity of your time. Debra Daly Hartin at the Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, supported my research on numerous occasions and was an incredible mentor during my conservation fellowship at the Institute. Thank you, Susan Walker, Geneviève Saulnier, Stephen Gritt, Chris Davidson, and Tasia Bulger, at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, for providing unique information on the materials and methods of Gaucher and Molinari that only conservators and conservation records contain. Jennifer Nicoll at the Agnes Etherington Gallery, Kingston, provided me with the opportunity to v examine their collection of Gaucher paintings and gather information from their meticulous files; thank you Jennifer Nicoll, I appreciate your willingness to facilitate my research. And lastly I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Musée des beaux arts, Montréal, and Michel de la Chenelière for supporting my dissertation with the Michel de la Chenelière Graduate research fellowship. I conducted numerous interviews during the course of my research; I cannot thank these artists, paint-makers, historians, conservators, and curators enough for their valuable time and precious insight. Michael Towe, Denise Leclerc, Marion Barclay, Roald Nasgaard, Gilles Dagneault, Guy Molinari, Henri Saxe, Guy Pellerin, Christian Kiopini, Claude Tousignant, Otto Rogers, Marc Séguin, and Marc Garneau all provided indispensible information. And a special thank you to Michael Towe; the interviews I conducted Mr. Towe, paint maker and owner-operator of Chromatech Acrylic Paint (Montreal, 1980-1999), were pivotal for this research. He provided unique understanding of the world of acrylic paint-making, the Montreal art scene in the 1980s and 1990s, and insight into the working methods of artists that would never be known except through his specific vantage. Thank you, Michael; your contribution to my research was instrumental. Thank you Concordia University for supporting my research and key members of the art history department who have helped with countless administrative tasks that have made my navigation through the program easier. Thank you, Anna Waclawek, Dina Vescio, and Camille Pouliot. Ideas are difficult to navigate without bouncing them off of other ideas, thank you Melanie Josic for being that incredibly astute person that I could always do that with. My notes and bibliography would not be the same without you; the last legs of this were made easier with your help. Thank you also to the Quebec film-maker Alex Larose for embarking on some collaborative projects with me over the years that helped to expand my ideas and theories. Lastly, an enormous thank you goes to my mother, father, and sister for their love and support. vi Table of Contents List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………... ix Chapter 1 – Introduction …………………………………………………………………. 1 Chapter 2 – Molinari, Tousignant, and Gaucher: Montreal Hard-Edge Painting ………... 27 The Plasticiens……………………………………………………………………... 31 Molinari ……………………………………………………………………………. 36 Tousignant …………………………………………………………………………. 46 Gaucher ……………………………………………………………………………. 59 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 71 Chapter 3 – Immateriality and Abstract Painting ………………………………………... 74 The Spiritual and The Formal: The Development of Abstract Painting …………... 80 The Montreal Context: Painting A New Spatial Reality …………………………... 94 The [Im]materiality of Hard-Edge Painting ……………………………………….. 100 Immateriality and Material Agency ……………………………………………….. 113 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 119 Chapter 4 – Modern Art Materials: The Break with Traditional Art Making …………… 122 History of Synthetic Paint Media and Artistic Use ………………………………... 126 The Impact of Independent Colourman …………………………………………… 143 Chromatech Acrylic Paint and Montreal Hard-Edge ……………………………… 149 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 161 Chapter 5 – A New Understanding of Materiality