Green landscape with figures

Bruno Bobak (1923 – 2012)
Polish emigré Branislaw “Bruno” Bobak is known for his humanistic and expressionist paintings, watercolours, prints, sculptures and murals. His war images, landscapes, still lifes and portraits reveal his greatest preoccupation, which was the relationship between body and soul. As noted by Bobak’s friend and the former Director of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Bernie Riordon, Bobak’s portraits had the ability to capture both the spirit and essence of his sitters. In the pre-war years, Bobak studied with Canadian artists Arthur Lismer at the Art Gallery of Toronto and Elizabeth Wyn Wood at the Central Technical School in Toronto. He was appointed official war artist for the Canadian Army during WW II, catapulting his professional career while providing much of the subject matter of his work in the mid 1940’s.

Bruno Bobak was a member of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and made a member of the Order of Canada in 1995. He served as Director of the Art Centre at the University of New Brunswick for many years, playing an influential role in the province’s art scene. His work is held in major public gallery collections across Canada, among them the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and in Fredericton, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the University of New Brunswick, and the Provincial Art Bank.