They were seven. They wanted to change the world, in the name of freedom. When women had barely obtained the right to vote in Quebec in 1940, carried along by the fight of pioneering suffragettes such as Idola Saint-Jean, Marie Gérin-Lajoie, Thérèse Casgrain, Lady Drummond, other illustrious Quebec women found at the crossroads of a post-war socio-cultural revolution that would forever mark the history of the Quebec nation.
Posted yesterday at 9:00 a.m.
They are called Madeleine Arbour, Muriel Guilbault, Marcelle Ferron, Thérèse Leduc, Louise Renaud, Françoise Riopelle and Françoise Sullivan. Some have left this world, while Madeleine Arbor and Françoise Sullivan remain the last two witnesses of an era that propelled Quebec into modernity. With the recent departure of Françoise Riopelle, on July 18, and on the eve of the 75e anniversary of the publication of the manifesto Global denialwhich we will celebrate in 2023, the time has come to highlight their immense contribution to our history and our cultural heritage, before those who still carry this invaluable legacy of our history disappear.
The testimonies of the last few days in tribute to Françoise Riopelle remind us that the women who signed Global denial are artists in their own right, pioneers, driven by an uncompromising thirst for freedom, an unshakeable thirst for creative freedom. They defied the conventions of the time, refusing to be relegated to their role of wife, mother, housekeeper, with a few exceptions.
They have made artistic expression a powerful vehicle of claim, of revolution, a plea in favor of social and cultural renewal, the ultimate quest for free and assertive creativity, a choreography linking all forms of art, confronting two realities: the politico-religious conservatism of the time and the ideal of a modern and progressive society where the artist is a full citizen in the creative and public space, where men and women can flourish freely . An invitation to get out of this “Great Darkness” to make way for light, where art lights the way like a beacon by becoming a fundamentally social gesture.
The artistic movement initiated by Borduas, embodied by those who would later be dubbed the Automatists, represented a revolutionary equality for the time. Seven women, nine men. We would congratulate ourselves today on having reached the “parity zone”. Some even argue that Borduas, in an impetus that could not be more precursory, would have even waited until some of the signatories could have reached the age of legal majority before publishing the manifesto. They, like their fellow co-signatories in 1948, left their mark on the history of Quebec art with their courage and determination, thus lighting the spark that would pave the way for the Quiet Revolution and the social changes that profoundly redefined and liberated Quebec in the 1960s.
The imposed limits came from another world,
the adult world we wanted to change,
the world of restrictions,
the negative world, the world of preventions and prescriptions.
[…]
We must bequeath to our future generation.
Facing this suffocation of a society that pretends but doesn’t dare. It was a question of meeting again, of a small group convinced of the legacy received to overturn this false solidity.
And the wheel turns.
Extract from an unpublished text by Françoise Riopelle dated January 18, 2003. Françoise Riopelle family archives.
This thirst for freedom, Françoise Riopelle will have embodied it, like her colleagues, throughout her life and career. Multidisciplinary artist of great talent, creator, teacher and renowned choreographer, she was both the mother of three children – Yseult and Sylvie Riopelle as well as Patrick Mercure – while being a free and modern woman before her time, emancipating herself both as an artist and as a woman from the 1950s. A daring cultural entrepreneur, she launched her own dance school on her return from Paris, where she lived from 1946 to 1958, in collaboration with Jeanne Renaud.
The latter would co-found with her a few years later the Modern Dance Group of Montreal, whose affiliated school would become the very first entirely devoted to modern dance in Canada. A teacher at UQAM since the creation of the university in 1969, we also owe her the creation of the modern dance module and her group Mobiles, integrating dance and stage performance. She will be a pioneer in the integration of body expression in educational settings.
It is high time to collectively exercise our duty to remember, to reconnect with our history. At a time when the notion of Quebec pride is part of the redefinition of our identity, let us conceive that the soul of a people rests on its ability to know, transmit and celebrate the heritage that it embodies. It is time that the women who have marked our history can see their contribution recognized, on our stages, on our screens, in our libraries, in our classrooms, in our museums and in public space in general.
In the name of freedom, let us remember their courageous struggles which allow us today to live in a society which they themselves helped to design and improve.
* Yseult Riopelle, Sylvie Riopelle, Patrick Mercure, Rose-Marie Arbour, Janine Carreau, Ray Ellenwood, Manon Gauthier, Claude Gosselin, Gilles Lapointe, Isabelle Leduc, Lorraine Pintal, Françoise Sullivan and René Viau