Please note that as of October 19, 2024, this painting is no longer available.
“Confrontation” (1964, oil on canvas, 122 x 184.5 cm) is a large-format abstract composition in which broad strokes of black paint blend into one another. It is one of a series of similar works produced at the same time. This painting comes from the estate of gallery owner Camille Hébert.
Suzanne Meloche is a painter and poet who was a member of the Montreal Automatist movement. Born in Ottawa in 1926, she moved to Montreal in 1945. She soon joined the group founded by Paul-Émile Borduas. She initially agreed to add her signature to the Refus global manifesto, before asking to have it withdrawn.
In the years that followed, she left Quebec to live in the United States, where she campaigned for civil rights, and in Europe, before returning to Canada. She died in Ottawa in 2009.
According to art historian Rose Marie Arbour (Canadian Art Review, 1994), she has “completely disappeared from the Quebec and Canadian art scene since 1964”, with the exception of a few works held by collectors and museums.
