Tree Trunks

Private Collection, Edmonton

Upon visiting Winnipeg in the summer of 1929 and meeting with Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, Bertram Brooker abandoned pure abstraction for the exploration of abstraction in figural and natural forms within the landscape. Rather than progress to abstraction as many of his compatriots had, Brooker instead utilised this bold initial experimentation with abstraction to incorporate into this later body of work. Heavily influenced by FitzGerald, Brooker adopted a refined and simplified stylistic handling of form, not dissimilar to the graphic arts of his early professional experience as a graphic artist. Rather than embrace the wild and ragged handling of paint to express the rugged terrain of the Canadian landscape, Brooker instead saw how the landscape could be abstracted and flattened while maintaining a refined dynamism. Utilizing compositional balance, “Tree Trunks” explores the modern handling of the landscape in the thirties, with a harnessing of simplified formalism, energetic movement with the diagonal lines within the natural forms, a harmonious colour palette and softened texture.