Generally considered to have introduced German expressionism to Canada, Brandtner was trained in Berlin. He came to Winnipeg in 1928, where he worked as a house painter until L.L. Fitzgerald, principal of the Winnipeg School of Art, encouraged him to exhibit his own experimental paintings.
In 1934 he moved to Montréal, where he found greater scope for his "modern" approach. He was associated there with John Lyman and the Contemporary Arts Society and later with the Canadian Group of Painters and with Marian Scott, with whom he taught children's art classes.
A strong sense of design, exuberant colours and characteristic, slashing black diagonals marked his work in oil, watercolour graphics and linoleum, the latter used for panels for the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and Jasper Park Lodge. Murals by Brandtner are in Saskatoon and Boston.
(Sources : "Fritz Brandtner" The Canadian Encyclopedia, Helen Duffy, « An Artist in Three Dimensions : Fritz Brandtner, …)
Solo Exhibitions
1928Winnipeg School of Art
1934Winnipeg Art Gallery
1936Henry Morgan and Co., Montreal
1938The Picture Loan Society, Toronto
1946Robert Oliver Gallery, Montreal
1953McGill University School of Social Work, Montreal
1954-55Maritime Art Association (travelling exhibition)
1969Kastel Gallery, Montreal
1971Kastel Gallery, Montreal
1971-72Sir George Williams University, Montreal
1977-78Kaspar Gallery, Montreal
1978Kastel Gallery, Montreal
1981Masters Gallery, Calgary
Annual Group Exhibitions (occasional participation)
1931-59Art Association of Montreal / Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1937-67Canadian Group of Painters
1935-55Canadian Society of Painters
1937-52Canadian Society of Graphic Art
1931-59National Gallery of Canada
1935-43Royal Canadian Academy
Annual Group Exhibitions (regular participation)
1963-69Thomas More Associates, Montreal
1959-68St. Joseph’s Teachers’ College, Montreal
until 1960Victorian Order of Nurses, Montreal
Selected Group Exhibitions in Canada and abroad
1977-78Art Gallery of Ontario
1967Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1961Instituto nacional de belles artes, Mexico City, Mexico
1950Art Gallery of Toronto
1950National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1945CGP Exhibition, Moscow, USSR
1941Brooklyn Museum, NY
1937Montreal Arts Club
1933Manitoba Society of Artists
Awards
1968Canada Council Visual Arts Award
1948First Place – Canadian Olympic Competition for oil painting Breaking away
1946AAM Jessie Dow Prize for watercolour Sixteen islands
Collections
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston
Art Gallery of Hamilton
Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Windsor
Concordia University, Montreal
Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada, Ottawa
Edmonton Art Gallery
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
Private Collections
