Subseries

This subseries contains notes, studies and lectures by Clarence A. Gagnon about art and how it is produced. It documents the artist's special interests, including arts and crafts and artistic techniques, and more broadly illustrates his position on the artistic movements of the early 20^th century and the theoretical basis on which his thinking is founded. The subseries is composed primarily of handwritten notes and typed texts, but also contains several printed documents and photocopies.

Loosely organized, the notes address a variety of topics. In them, Gagnon looks at art from a theoretical perspective, examining its definition, function, principles and value. He discusses the idea of representation, art criticism, art appreciation, the artist's attributes, the artistic impulse, creative imagination and the question of originality. The subseries contains several pages of notes about art history and offers reflections on the sense of sight and the artist's distinctive perspective. Gagnon writes about various artistic movements, including modern art, Futurism, Cubism and Surrealism. Several pages are devoted to French art dealer Ambroise Vollard and painter Paul Cézanne. There are some notes on Montreal's École du meuble.

The subseries also contains an invoice from Kennedy & Company of New York City, dealers specialized in engravings, concerning the purchase of works by Gagnon, along with three invoices from the Paris firm of Morin & Janet for the purchase of art supplies. Handwritten notes about techniques and pigment blends, some of which are written on invitations, are grouped together in a hardcover folder bearing the handwritten title "Documents about Color." There is also a printed document on the tempera technique and a press clipping about the discovery of a new pigment.

In addition, the subseries includes lectures that Gagnon presented to the Pen & Pencil Club and the Arts Club of Montreal entitled, respectively, "The Grand Bluff of Modernist Art" and "Theory and Chemistry of Colour in Art." There are also notes, rough drafts and texts about artists Horatio Walker, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté and James Wilson Morrice. Several pages of notes, on subjects like tapestries and textile art organizations in Scandinavian countries and elsewhere in Europe, along with two texts entitled "Habitant Art" and "For a revival of Canadian art" reveal Gagnon's interest in rural crafts.

Finally, the subseries contains press clippings about Gagnon's lectures, a copy of a letter sent to his wife, Lucile Rodier, by Duncan Campbell Scott in 1943 concerning a plan to posthumously publish writings by the artist, and a photocopy of a document containing excerpts from a letter and interview discussing the estate of Horatio Walker.