Françoise Sullivan
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Françoise Sullivan CM CQ |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
10 June 1925 Montreal |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | Hochelaga Convent |
| Alma mater | École des beaux-arts de Montréal |
| Style | modern dance |
| Movement | Les Automatistes |
Françoise Sullivan, CM CQ (born 10 June 1925 in Montreal) is a Canadian painter, sculptor, dancer and choreographer.
Françoise Sullivan grew up in Montreal, the youngest child and only girl in a middle-class family with four boys. Her father was a lawyer who worked as the Deputy Minister of the Federal Post Office Department. He enjoyed poetry and both he and her mother encouraged her early interest in the arts by enrolling her in dance, theatre, and painting lessons.
Sullivan studied classical dance with Gérald Crevier from 1934 to 1945. She also took courses in visual arts, studying at Hochelaga Convent in 1939 and attending the École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1940 to 1944. Her early paintings were influenced by Fauvism and Cubism. In 1941 she came into contact with the Québecois painter Paul-Émile Borduas and members of the group Les Automatistes. Her friendship with Bourduas and the group influenced her paintings and performances in the following years. In 1948, Sullivan signed Les Automatistes' Refus Global manifesto, which included her essay La danse et l'espoir (Dance and Hope).
From 1945 to 1947, Sullivan lived in New York where she studied modern dance with Franziska Boas, the daughter of anthropologist Franz Boas. She also studied briefly with Martha Graham and Louis Horst. After returning to Montreal in 1947 she continued choreographing modern dance. In 1948, accompanied by Jean-Paul Riopelle and Maurice Perron, Sullivan performed Danse dans la neige (Dance in the Snow) outside Mont-St-Hilaire, Québec. Perron and Riopelle both documented the performance, however, only Perron's photographs remain as Riopelle's film footage was later lost. Like other members of Les Automatistes Sullivan was interested in 'psychic automatism' and Danse dans la neige was the second in a series of performances in which Sullivan improvised gestural movements to explore the seasons. Danse dans la neige is considered one of the most significant pieces of performance art in Canadian art history. In 2007 Sullivan reworked her first two performances Summer and Danse dans la neige and completed two more choreographed dances which were filmed by Mario Côté to create Les Saisons Sullivan.
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