Cosmos

Fritz Brandtner was a self-taught painter, draughtsman, and muralist born in Danzig (now Gda´nsk, Poland). Before settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1928, he worked as an assistant to the Post-Impressionist painter August Pfuhle and taught at the University of Danzig, while also working as a graphic artist. In 1934, Brandtner, known for having introduced German Expressionism to Canada, moved to Montreal, where he was introduced to other modernists such as John Lyman, the future founder of the Contemporary Arts Society. In 1936, Dr. Norman Bethune organized an exhibition of Brandtner’s work as a fundraiser for the Canadian League Against War and Fascism. That same year, the two men established The Children’s Art Centre. Brandtner’s work is imbued with influences as diverse as Bauhaus, Cubism, and Surrealism, and was the subject of some fifteen solo exhibitions in Canada between 1934 and 2012. In 1946, he was awarded the Jessie Dow Prize for his watercolours. Brandtner died in Montreal in 1969.