Public Program

Françoise Sullivan and the Automatistes’ Animated Plasticity:
A Panel Discussion

Saturday, February 15, 2020 | 1 pm – 3 pm

Join exhibition curator Mark Lanctôt (Montreal) and Automatist scholar and writer Ray Ellenwood (Toronto) for a discussion featuring Quebec’s first abstract art movement in the 1940s-50s and learn about Françoise Sullivan’s remarkable inter-disciplinary art practice. Sullivan was a signatory of the important automatist manifesto, Refus Global (1948) in which she wrote “Dance and Hope.” The panel will explore how the idea of malleability—to be shaped—applied to gesture in her dance practice and how her painter colleagues talked about colour manipulated through gesture. The panelists will show how movement and spontaneity are at the core of both acts. The panel will be moderated by Catharine Mastin, AGW Executive Director.

Location: Valiant Corporation Suite, Third Floor