Marcelle Ferron

Marcelle Ferron (Louiseville, 1924 – Montreal, 2001) was a Canadian painter and stained glass artist and a major figure in the contemporary art scene of Quebec. She was one of the sixteen signatories of Paul-Émile Borduas's Refus global manifesto in 1948, as part of the Automatistes movement, and her career helps explain the renewal of modern art in that province.

She left the École des beaux-arts de Québec without finishing, dissatisfied with how its teachers approached modern art, and joined the Automatistes. In 1953 she moved to Paris, where she spent thirteen years drawing and painting and discovered stained glass, which would become her main medium. She was especially inspired by the French glass artist Michel Blum and his innovations.

She returned to Quebec in 1966 and for the next two decades worked almost exclusively in stained glass. One of her windows is at Champ-de-Mars metro station in Montreal. It was among the first non-figurative works installed in the metro, a departure from the didactic style of the period. Other examples of her work can be seen at Vendôme metro station and at the Sainte-Justine hospital, also in Montreal.

In 1961 she represented Canada at the VI Bienal in São Paulo, where she won the silver medal, becoming the first Québécoise to receive such international recognition. Her legacy endures: a nursing home in Brossard bears her name, and in 2019 Google honoured her with a doodle.