The document announces an art exhibition titled "Art = Libération" featuring works by Automatist artists Pierre Gauvreau and Janine Carreau at the Baron Gallery in Vancouver from September 28, 2011 to Spring 2012. Pierre Gauvreau was a key member of the Automatist movement in Montreal in the 1940s that revolutionized painting in Quebec through abstraction and automatism. The exhibition will showcase 47 of their works curated by friend and Automatist historian Ray Ellenwood and is intended to celebrate the life and freedom from strict culture represented in Gauvreau and Carreau's works following Gauvreau's recent death.

1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2011 - Spring 2012
ART = LIBÉRATION
Gauvreau/Carreau 2002
Automatist Pierre Gauvreau
(1922-2011)
& Janine Carreau
“La jeunesse est en nous et nous sommes la jeunesse” (Claude Gauvreau)
Automatist, Pierre Gauvreau was part of a circle of young artists from various discipines
who gravitated around painter Paul Emile-Borduas in 1940’s Montreal. Together the
Automatists revolutionized painting in restrictive Quebec of the Duplessis years. Inspired
by the Surrealists, they found freedom of expression in abstraction pursued through
automatism: an instinctive, unpremeditated form of creating art.
Their manifesto Refus global (1948) is widely recognized as a crucial expression of
Quebec modernism and the unrest that would eventually lead to the so-called ‘Quiet
Revolution.’ Pierre Gauvreau was very active in the production of the manifesto and
eventually in defending it publicly against attacks by the clergy and newspaper
columnists.
- Curator Ray Ellenwood, on the Automatists.
Pierre Gauvreau died on April 7th, 2011, and would have just passed his 90th birthday
when Art = Libération was slated to open. Pierre’s wife Janine Carreau devoloped her own
career as a painter and photographer while combining energies with her husband for more
than 35 years. For Pierre Gauvreau and Janine Carreau, the Automatist style has produced
an aesthetic of exuberance - use of vibrant colours and textures demonstrate their
celebration of life and of freedom from the strict cleric culture of mid-century Quebec.
Hosted by Baron Gallery in Gastown, the exhibition features a selection of 47 works
curated by long time friend to the artists, Ray Ellenwood, author of Egregore: A History of
the Montréal Automatist Movement, and The Automatiste Revolution.
Opening night: 7pm Thursday October 13, 2011
Refreshments will be served
Janine Carreau and Ray Ellenwood will be present.
Baron Gallery
293 Columbia St @ Cordova
Gastown, Vancouver 604.682.1114
www.barongallery.ca info@barongallery.ca