Radiating Expansion
Artist
Paul-Émile Borduas
Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, 1905 – Paris 1960
Title
Radiating Expansion
Date
1956
Materials
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
115.7 x 89 cm
Credits
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Max Stern, inv. 1978.22
Collection
Quebec and Canadian Art
Max Stern, of Montreal's Dominion Gallery, purchased this painting directly from the artist in Paris in 1956. This work was therefore the first to reveal to the Montreal public the new style Borduas had developed after his move to Paris. The artist himself spoke of the “considerable simplifying leap” taken in his purely black and white paintings. It is not surprising that these paintings caused quite a sensation in Montreal.
The title suggests that the black is “expanding” in all directions, invading the white, like the “expanding universe” described by astrophysicists. But here, it is not matter that is expanding, but the void, the cosmic night.
© Estate of Paul-Émile Borduas / SOCAN (2021)
