Provenance:

Pinney’s, Montreal, QC

Note:

FRITZ BRANDTNER (1896 - 1969)

"Nature can be compared to a frame (the frame of life). It is the edge around the boundaries of experience. If we continue to consider only the frame of nature and not the emotional content, then we have not gained anything or used meaningfully the language of the painter. Art comes from character and personality more than from theory and imitation in nature."

- Fritz Brandtner -

Fritz Brandtner was a prolific painter, draughtsman, muralist and teacher who is credited with bringing German Expressionism to Canada. His profound social concerns not only reflected in his artwork, but also in the successful art programs that he created for underprivileged children.
Fritz Brandtner was born in Danzig, Germany in 1896. He was forced into the German army in 1915, and was sent to the Front, where he was captured and held prisoner in France until the end of the war. Her returned to Germany and worked with post-impressionist August Pfuhle in his studio and taught classes at the University of Danzig. In 1928, Brandtner moved to Winnipeg, Alberta, already an accomplished artist. He found work as a commercial artists, muralist and set designer, and mounted his first solo exhibition within months of his arrival. He met and became a close friend of Lemoine Fitzgerald who was principal of the Winnipeg School of Art. Lemoine was one of the few people in the Winnipeg art world who understood and respected Brandtner’s style of expressionism and modernism and, in 1934, convinced Brandtner to move to Montreal, where the art scene was more experimental and suited to his style of painting. Through Fitzgerald’s contact, Robert Ayre, Brandtner was soon introduced to the Montreal art community, including artists John Lyman (the Contemporary Arts Society), and Anne Savage, but also to influential people in the Montreal art scene, including Dr. Norman Bethune and Marian Scott. Bethune was immediately attracted to the artist’s social concerns and was the first Montrealer to purchase his work. In 1936, Bethune arranged an exhibition of Brandtner’s works at Henry Morgan and Co. to benefit the Canadian League Against War and Fascism. The two then went on to found the Children’s Art Center that same year.
Brandtner exhibited in over fifteen solo shows across Canada, and numerous international shows. He was a member of Contemporary Arts Society and received a number of awards, including the much coveted Jessie Dow Award in 1946. Brandtner taught over the next twenty years in numerous organizations and schools, and directed the University of New Brunswick’s summer art school. A strong sense of design, exuberant colours and characteristic, slashing black diagonals marked his work in oil, watercolour graphics and linoleum. He died at the age of 73 in Montreal.

Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston
Art Gallery of Hamilton
Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Windsor
Claridge Collection, Montreal, QC
Concordia University, Montreal
Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada, Ottawa
Edmonton Art Gallery
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB
Hart House, University of Toronto
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Upper Canada College, Toronto
University of Guelph
University of Fredericton
Vancouver Art Gallery
Winnipeg Art Gallery

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2012 Fritz Brandtner Retrospective, Gallerie Walter Klinkhoff
1981 Masters Gallery, Calgary
1978 Kastel Gallery, Montreal
1977-78 Kaspar Gallery, Montreal
1971-72 Sir George Williams University, Montreal
1971 Kastel Gallery, Montreal
1969 Kastel Gallery, Montreal
1954-55 Maritime Art Association (travelling exhibition)
1953 McGill University School of Social Work, Montreal
1946 Robert Oliver Gallery, Montreal
1938 The Picture Loan Society, Toronto
1936 Henry Morgan and Co., Montreal
1934 Winnipeg Art Gallery
1928 Winnipeg School of Art
 
Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 Collectors’ Choice, Thielsen Gallery, London, ON
until 1960 Victorian Order of Nurses, Montreal
until 1960 Victorian Order of Nurses, Montreal
1977-78 Art Gallery of Ontario
1967 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1963-69 Thomas More Associates, Montreal
1963-69 Thomas More Associates, Montreal
1961 Instituto nacional de belles artes, Mexico City, Mexico
1959-68 St. Joseph’s Teachers’ College, Montreal
1959-68 St. Joseph’s Teachers’ College, Montreal
1950 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1950 Art Gallery of Toronto
1945 CGP Exhibition, Moscow, USSR
1941Brooklyn Museum, NY
1937-67 Canadian Group of Painters
1937-52 Canadian Society of Graphic Art
1937 Montreal Arts Club
1935-43 Royal Canadian Academy
1933 Manitoba Society of Artists
1931-59 National Gallery of Canada
1931-59 Art Association of Montreal / Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Selected Awards

1968 Canada Council Visual Arts Award
1948 First Place – Canadian Olympic Competition for oil painting Breaking away
1946 AAM Jessie Dow Prize for watercolour Sixteen islands