Lot 249
RITA BRIANSKY (1925 - )
Provenance:
West End Gallery, Montreal, QC
Note:
RITA BRIANSKY (1925 - )
Rita Briansky was born in 1925 in Grajewo, Poland and immigrated to Canada at the age of four with her family before the war. She studied art under Alexander Bercovitch and Anne Savage, and at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, L’ecole des beaux-arts and the New York Art Student’s League. Briansky’s works have been shown in Canada, the United States, Norway and France.
Briansky returned to Poland in 1995 to come to terms with the Holocaust through her art, resulting in The Kaddish Series, eighteen paintings that are a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The paintings are now part of a permanent collection at the Montreal Jewish Hospital.
In 1977, Briansky began collaborating with the National Ballet of Canada Veronica Tennant on the children’s story, On Stage, Please, about a young girl’s quest to become a ballerina. Brianski spent the summer sketching young dancers. Fourteen of these sketches are now permanently on display at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. In 2008, the “On-Stage, Please” Gallery was opened at the hospital. There are also installations at the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto (2010) and BC’s Children’s Hospital (2012).
In 2008, the Musee des beaux-arts du Québec featured some of Briansky’s works in the group exhibit entitled Jewish Painters of Montreal: Witnesses of Their Time, 1930-1948. The show was a tremendous success and has travelled several venues since, including the McCord Museum in Montreal in 2010. In 2011, Brianski, along with Susan G. Scott, published “My Name is RIta Briansky - A series of autobiographical fragments,” which recounts the artist’s compelling life story. Brianski has also taught at the Saidye Bronfman Center, and the Montreal Visual Arts Center. She lives in Montreal, Quebec, and is still actively painting and lecturing.
Select Corporate, Private and Public Collections
Burnaby Art Society, Burnaby, BC
Canadian National Railway Executive train
Claridge Collection, Montreal, QC
Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton, ON
London Art Gallery, London, ON
MacMaster University, Hamilton, ON
Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK
National Gallery, Ottawa, ON
New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, NB
St. Joseph Teachers’ College, Montreal, QC
Thomas More Institute, Montreal, QC
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Select Solo Exhibitions
2009 Expo Rita Briansky, Galerie d’art V-Trimont, Westmount, QC
1977 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON
1973 Waddington Gallery, Montreal, QC
1966 West End Gallery, Montreal, QC
1966 Gallery Pascal, Toronto, ON
1965 Glenhyrst Arts Centre, Bratford, ON
Elca London Studio, Montreal, QC
1964 Artlenders, Montreal, QC
Gallery Pascal, Toronto, ON
Peck Gallery, Burlington, ON
1963 Elca London Studio, Montreal, QC
1962 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gal. XII, Montreal, QC
1960 Upstairs Gallery, Toronto, ON
1957 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gal. XII, Montreal, QC
Select Group Exhibitions
2010 Jewish Painters of Montreal: Witnesses of Their Time, 1930-1948, McCord Museum, Montreal, QC
2009 Selected Works, West End Gallery, Westmount, QC
2008 On Stage, Please” Gallery, The Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, QC
2007 Blessings, Temple Emmanu-El-Beth Sholom, Westmount, QC
1969 Peter Dobush Donation to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Public Library, Regina, SK
1967 7th Calgary Graphics Centennial Show, AB
UNICEF International U.N., NYC
4th Biennial Prints Invitational Sect., Burnaby, B.C.
1960-1961 Salon International Feminin de Vichy, Vichy/Algiers/U.N., NYC
1960 2nd Intl. Biennial of Prints, Tokyo & Osaka, Japan
Selected Links
Art for the Healing