Bertram Brooker

Infobox Artist
name = Bertram Brooker


imagesize = 200px
caption = Brooker painting in his sutdio, 1943
birthname = Bertram Richard Brooker
birthdate = 31 March 1888
location = Croydon, England,
deathdate = death date and age|1955|03|22|1888|03|31
deathplace =
nationality = English-Canadian
field = Writing, Painting, Music
training =
movement = Abstract impressionism
works =
patrons =
influenced by = LeMoine Fitzgerald
influenced =
awards = Governor General's 1936 Award for Fiction

Bertram Richard Brooker (March 31, 1888 – March 22, 1955) was a Canadian writer, painter, musician, and advertising agency executive.

Born in Croydon, England, to Richard Brooker and Mary Ann (Skinner) Brooker, he moved to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1905 with his family. In 1913 he rented a movie theatre in Neepawa, Manitoba. That same year he married Mary Aurilla (“Rill”) Porter. In 1914 he became editor of the "Portage Review", a local newspaper. In 1915 he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Engineers in Winnipeg. After the war he worked for "The Winnipeg Tribune", "The Regina Leader-Post" and "The Winnipeg Free Press".

He moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1921 and joined the staff of "Marketing" magazine. Brooker served as the magazine's editor and publisher from 1924 until 1926. In 1923, he published his first book, "Subconscious Selling". In 1929 he joined the staff of the J.J. Gibbons Advertising Agency.

In 1931 Brooker was embroiled in a controversy about nudity in art when a painting of his was removed from a gallery exhibition because it contained nudity. [ [http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/canadian/Bertram-Brooker.html Biography of Bertram Brooker] , retrieved on May 25th 2007.] Brooker later wrote the essay "Nudes and Prudes" in 1931 as a rebuke. [ [http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/canadian/Nudes-and-Prudes.html Nudes and Prudes by Bertram Brooker] , retrieved on May 25th 2007.]

In 1936, Brooker's novel "Think of the Earth" (1936) became the first work to win the Governor General's Award for Fiction. In 1940 he joined the staff of the MacLaren Advertising Co.

Brooker is regarded as the first Canadian abstract impressionist. He was strongly influenced in his development as an artist by LeMoine Fitzgerald.

elected bibliography

*"Subconscious Selling" (1923)
*"Layout Technique in Advertising" (1929) [Writing as R. W. Surrey]
*"Copy Technique in Advertising" (1930) [Writing as R. W. Surrey]
*"Think of the Earth" (1936)
*"The Tangled Miracle" (1936)
*"The Robber" (1949)
*"Sounds Assembling: The Poetry of Bertram Brooker" (1980)

Notes

References

*
* Reid, Dennis. "Bertram Brooker, 1888-1955" Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1973.