Fritz BRANDTNER (1896-1969) CSPWC, CGP, CSGA, FCA

Abstraction, coloured inks on paper, 13 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches, signed lower left, Kaspar Gallery, Toronto label verso. Friedrich Wilhelm Brandtner was born in Danzig, Germany. He immigrated to (Montreal) Canada in 1928. Brandtner introduced notions of the German Expressionists to Canadians, especially the works of Bauhaus. He later introduced abstraction into his practice, as shown in this work. In 1936, together with Norman Bethune, George Holt, Elizabeth Frost, André Charles Biéler and Hazen Sise, he founded the Children's Art Centre in Montreal which offered art classes to local children at no charge. Brandtner received the Canada Council Visual Arts Award in 1968.