February 11, 2010

On Friday, March 19th, The Automatiste Revolution: Montreal 1941-1960, a landmark exhibition of works by Canada’s first avant-garde art movement, will open at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.  It is one of the most extensive exhibitions to date of the Automatiste Group, whose work created what is recognized today as the most interdisciplinary and possibly the most important art movement in Canada.  The Automatistes were the first artists to bring modernist painting to Canada and the first Canadian artists to embrace avant-garde gestural abstraction.

The opening at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will represent the first time this important work will be seen in a broad international context, with complementary works from the Albright-Knox’s Permanent Collection of the contemporaneous United States avant-garde, the Abstract Expressionists, also on view.  Major works by Jean-Paul Riopelle and Paul-Émile Borduas will be complemented in context with work by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko from the internationally known collection of the Albright-Knox.

The exhibition was organized, and recently on view at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Ontario.  An accompanying publication, The Automatiste Revolution: Montreal 1941-1960 (Douglas & McIntyre) has been co-authored by Roald Nasgaard and Automatiste historian Ray Ellenwood and includes sixty color reproductions of works in the exhibition.  The exhibition and publication are supported by the Varley-McKay Art Foundation and private donors.  The exhibition will open at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery on March 19, 2010 and remain on view through May 30, 2010.  Gallery Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., Friday from 12:00 noon to 10:00 p.m.  Admission is $12.00 for adults, $8.00 for seniors and students and free for Gallery Members and children 12 and under.  On Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Gusto at the Gallery features a variety of free programs for visitors of all ages.  The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is located at 1285 Elmwood Avenue and for more information, visit www.albrightknox.org.