Saturday, October 2, 2010

Bertram Brooker, Lawren Harris and Spirituality in Art

Checking back to the site, Canadianarthistory, (please click here).There are a couple of things of note in that website essay. One being that Bertram Brooker's paintings embraced realism and then moved into abstractionism. Secondly, Brooker demonstrated a concern for spirituality in his works. And, lastly, Bertram knew and communicated with Lawren Harris.

It pretty evident that Lawren Harris at the very least, shared Brooker's interest in spirituality. Harris was a known Theosophist. The above painting by Lawren Harris is loaded with spiritual symbolism. The question we will never really know is whether Bertram Brooker influenced Lawren Harris on a spiritual level - did they both play off one another, or did Harris influence Brooker?

Whatever it was, Lawren Harris's North Shore Superior, eventually went on to sell for
$3.5 million dollars in November 2009.

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