Woman Reading by Rita Briansky

Born in Poland, she came to Canada in 1929 and as a child was very interested in art. She studied under Alexander Bercovitch at the Y.W.H.A., 1941-2; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under Jacques de Tonnancour, 1942-4; the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Montreal, under M. Carpentier, 1944-46; and the Art Students’ League, New York under Jan Carbino, Louis Bosa, H. Sternberg and V. Vytlacil, 1946-8.

On her Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibit of engravings in 1962, the Montreal Gazette made these comments, “Rita Briansky is particularly successful in her interpretation of childhood’s dreamy moods. All her works contain elements of tenderness and poetic sensitivity, whether her subjects embrace children, women, men, flowers and objects, or even a puppy dog . . . her work projects a quality of velvety softness due to her knowledge of degrees of light and shade.” She has sketched many of her friends and especially her daughters. She prefers to paint people she knows very well in order to interpret what lies within them.

Her media includes oils, conte, pastel and copper plate etching. Her oils are mostly in smoothly applied thin colour except where there are rugged features in the landscape. Her prints and drawings are perhaps better known. She has illustrated an anthology of children’s short stories for the Gage Publishing Company called “Rubaboo 4”. She had held one person shows at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gallery XII, 1957, 1962; Upstairs Gallery, Toronto, 1960; Elca London Studio, Montreal, 1963, 1965; Gallery Pascal, Toronto, 1964, 1966; Artlenders, Montreal, 1964; Glenhyrst Arts Council, Brantford, Ont., 1965; West End Art Gallery, Montreal, 1966. Her group shows have included the Second International Biennial Exhibition of Prints, Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, 1960-1 and the United Nations, N.Y.; Nov.-Dec., 1965. Her works are in the collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Vancouver Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK; and many others.

She is a member of the Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers Society, and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. She made the presentation print for the 50th Anniversary of the C.P.E., 1966, and her etching exhibited at the U.N. was reproduced in the 1996 UNICEF engagement calendar. She is married to J. Prezament who is a commercial artist. They live in Montreal.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977