Bertram Richard Brooker

Bertram Richard Brooker, artist, novelist, poet, journalist, advertising executive (b at Croydon, Eng 31 Mar 1888; d at Toronto 21 Mar 1955). He immigrated to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, in 1905 and worked with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. He then owned and operated a motion picture theatre in Neepawa, Manitoba, subsequently working on newspapers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Brooker moved to Toronto in 1921 as an advertising executive.

As an artist - working in oil, watercolour, pencil, ink and print media - he executed both abstracts and realistic works. Brooker became the first Canadian artist to exhibit abstracts in 1927; Sounds Assembling (1928) and Alleluiah (1929) are early important paintings.

As a novelist he won the first Governor General's Award for fiction with Think of the Earth (1936). He initiated, introduced and edited The Yearbook of the Arts in Canada 1928-1929, and a second volume in 1936. Brooker was an active member of Toronto's cultural life, painting, writing both prose and poetry, and regularly reviewing contemporary art and literature.

Sounds Assembling
Sounds Assembling
Oil on canvas by Bertram Brooker, 1928, 44.5" x 36"

Author PATRICIA E. BOVEY

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