This magnificent Borduas painting is a fine discovery. Paintings of 1949 are especially rare to come upon. A year after the publication of the manifesto Refus Global, and his suspension from his teaching position at the École du Meuble, 1949 was not an easy year for Borduas. He literally had...

Powered by the dearth of available masterworks, an undeniable strength in the market for Old Master, Impressionist and Modern Canadian art was accented by very selective bidding at the auctions this fall. To no surprise, great paintings with favourable estimates, colours, subject matter, and that were not competing against other...

In Paris, Borduas was living in his studio where he had a mattress on the floor in the corner. He painted at that time enormous black and white abstractions and occasionally some of more manageable dimensions, which I bought. Obviously hard up for money, Borduas never tried to sell and...