Source: WTL© photograph from Pierre Gauvreau; Passeur de modernité, p. 129.
Image: "L'Oeil du cyclope condamné" [The condemned Cyclop's eye] (2004).
Comments: The renowned translator and art critic Ray Ellenwood (b. 1939) said this about Gauvreau's works after 1995: "There is a sort of youth and vitality in Gauvreau's works that completely belie the conditions in which they were produced" (translated from the French by WTL; Pierre Gauvreau; Passeur de modernité, p. 128).
Ellenwood was one of Gauvreau's constant friends. He continues to teach at York University in Toronto, and he has translated many of Québec's most prominent authors, including the Refus global manifesto. His recent book on Québec's Automatist movement is the definitive study on the subject: Ray Ellenwood, Égrégore; Une histoire du mouvement automatiste de Montréal. Trans. Jean Antonin Billard. Montréal: Kétouba Édition, 2014.
In Classical mythology, Cyclops was one of the primordial race of giants who had a single, round eye in the middle of their foreheads.
Humanities Question: How is the theme of this particular figure from Classical mythology related to this painting and to painting in general and to Gauvreau in particular?