Les Automatistes

art group

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June 18, 2026

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Les Automatistes was a radical abstract art group founded in Quebec, Canada, around 1946 by painter Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle. The group was influenced by Surrealism and practiced automatism, a technique aimed at expressing the unconscious mind through art. This involved spontaneous creation, often through automatic painting or drawing, without conscious censorship. The movement was active until approximately 1951. Borduas later works showed similarities to Jackson Pollock, though he only acknowledged Franz Kline as an influence from the United States.12

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Canada
Visual arts
…group in Montreal known as Les Automatistes dominated the Canadian art scene in the 1940s, with members such as Jean-Paul Riopelle and Fernand Leduc gaining prominence. In reaction to that movement, Montreal artists such as Guido Molinari and Claude Tonsignant in the mid-1950s freed contemporary painting from its Surrealist style…
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…group in Montreal known as Les Automatistes dominated the Canadian art scene in the 1940s, with members such as Jean-Paul Riopelle and Fernand Leduc gaining prominence. In reaction to that movement, Montreal artists such as Guido Molinari and Claude Tonsignant in the mid-1950s freed contemporary painting from its Surrealist style…
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automatism
…Mousseau, and Jean-Paul Riopelle—known as Les Automatistes, practiced automatism. From about 1950 a group of artists in the United States called Action painters adopted automatic methods, some under the direct influence of Masson, Gorky, and Ernst, all of whom had moved to the United States to escape World War II.…
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…Mousseau, and Jean-Paul Riopelle—known as Les Automatistes, practiced automatism. From about 1950 a group of artists in the United States called Action painters adopted automatic methods, some under the direct influence of Masson, Gorky, and Ernst, all of whom had moved to the United States to escape World War II.…
Read More