In 1956 Canadian abstract painter Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960)—who led the Montreal-based artists’ group Les Automatistes—described Green Abstraction as his “first totally non-preconceived painting” and “one of the forerunners of the Automatiste [movement] already gathering on the horizon.” To him an Automatiste painting was not preconceived; it was not planned in advance, with a final result or goal to be achieved. As he said in a CBC radio interview in 1950: “Perfectly well-intentioned people have often… said to me: ‘Monsieur Borduas, I really love your work, I love the colour. Only, I don’t understand [it].’ And then I’m obliged to answer them honestly: ‘I don’t understand any more than you do. Whatever it is you are searching for in the painting, I’m searching for it too. You are looking for the subject of this painting; I’m as much at a loss as you are.’”