Disenchanted by the traditional curriculum at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, Rita Letendre left in 1949, immersing herself in the ethos and aesthetic approaches championed by Paul-Émile Borduas and the Automatists. While her early non-figurative explorations retained gestural remnants of ordered geometries, by the 1960s, her surfaces had shifted into a singular style of exuberant abstraction. As Letendre embraced emotion as the catalyst for creative discovery, the grid formations of earlier works expanded into dramatic converging planes of colour and impasto, illuminated by vivid bursts of light amidst swirling black backgrounds.

The surrealistic title of this 1961 canvas, reminiscent of the word “germination,” subtly conjures the nascent energies of birth, growth and transformation. Sparks of white light flash against turbulent planes of black and garnet, while a soft sprig of green and serene expanse of blue below signal the resiliency of the natural world. At the centre, a radiant vertical form bursts forth—a solar flare against a cosmic void. Evoking the primordial forces of vitality, renewal and self-discovery, Germition marks a pivotal moment in Letendre’s evolving creative practice.

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