Bertram Brooker: When We Awake!
February 10 to June 2, 2024
About the Exhibition
Bertram Brooker: When We Awake! examines the career of Bertram Brooker (1888–1955), the first Canadian artist to exhibit abstract paintings, in 1927. Curated by Michael Parke-Taylor, the exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of Brooker’s oeuvre in almost half a century, gathering his diverse work in painting, drawing, and sculpture and highlighting his activities as one of the country’s leading art critics and journalists. The exhibition emphasizes Brooker’s variety in style and subject matter, and includes lyrical abstractions, exacting realistic nudes, geometric cubist still-lifes, and surreal graphic illustrations. Bertram Brooker: When We Awake! offers a rare vantage point on a pivotal figure in Canadian cultural history and is accompanied by a full-scale catalogue by Michael Parke-Taylor, published by Figure 1.
Bertram Brooker (1888–1955), Sounds Assembling, 1928, oil on canvas, 112.3 x 91.7 cm, collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, L-80. Photo: Ernest Mayer, courtesy of WAG-Qaumajuq
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Curatorial Talk with Michael Parke-Taylor
Abstraction and Realism: The Versatile Genius of Bertram Brooker
March 13, 2024
Artworks from the Exhibition
Bertram Brooker (1888–1955), Abstraction, Music, c. 1927, oil on card, 43 x 61 cm, collection of Museum London, F.B. Housser Memorial Collection, 1945. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid
Bertram Brooker (1888–1955), Cabbage and Pepper, 1937, oil on canvas, 40.6 x 50.8 cm, purchased 1973, Collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PE, CAG 73.5
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