Fritz Brandtner
Friedrich Wilhelm Brandtner, known during his life as Fritz Brandtner, was a German-Canadian artist and art instructor. During his career he worked variously as painter, printmaker, graphic artist, illustrator, muralist, and set designer.
Brandtner emigrated to Canada from Germany in 1928. Following a short stay in Winnipeg he settled in Montreal in 1934. He was a member of the Contemporary Arts Society in Montreal, serving as its first secretary. He was also a passionate art-educator, teaching classes with Canadian painter Marian Dale Scott. Brandtner introduced notions of the German Expressionists to Canada, especially the works of Bauhaus and abstractionism.
In 1935, together with Norman Bethune, George Holt, Elizabeth Frost, Andre Bieler and Hazen Sise, he founded the Children's Art Centre in Montreal. The centre offered free art classes to local children.
A close friend of Brandtner, Montreal art dealer Paul Kastel, of the Kastel Gallery, was named executor of Brandtner's estate. Kastel continued to promote Brandtner's work over the following four decades. In 2011 Galerie Valentin held a retrospective exhibition of Brandtner's works.
