B. C. Binning
Encyclopedia
Bertram Charles Binning (born 10 February 1909 in Medicine Hat, Alberta
; died 16 March 1976 in Vancouver
, British Columbia
), popularly known as B. C. Binning, was a leading Canadian artist. In 1949, when he was teaching at the Vancouver School of Art (today's Emily Carr University of Art and Design,) he was invited by Fred Lasserre, the first director of the School of Architecture at The University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) to come and teach art to the architecture students. Binning, from a family of architects himself, taught that art, architecture and life are intimately connected.
Binning began to invite the leading architects in the Modernism movement in California to lecture in Vancouver (such as, in 1949 and 1953, Richard Neutra
, who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright
; others included Peter Thornton, Peter Cotton, Ned Pratt, John Porter and Fred Hollingsworth). In this way he was instrumental in bringing West Coast modern architecture to Canada. He and his culturally aware wife Jessie (Wyllie) Binning (1906–2007) provided many opportunities in their home for these famous architects to mingle with his students.
Bert and Jessie Binning fostered close ties with the most recognized figures in art in Vancouver. They were friends with Lawren Harris
and his wife, artist Bess Harris. Those in his academic circle of intimates from art school were Gordon A. Smith
and his wife Marion Smith, Orville Fisher, Fred Amess, John Koerner, Jack Shadbolt and his wife Doris Shadbolt, Lionel Thomas, and also Bruno Bobak and his wife Molly Lamb Bobak. It was an exciting time in the world art scene too. The oppressive constraints of Victorian attitudes toward art and architecture were being thrown off. In Europe it was the time of Post-Impressionism
, Fauvism
, Cubism
, and the De Stijl
movements.
In Binning's personal artistic practice he revealed his lifestyle. Known as an excellent draughtsman, he recorded his experiences in intricate line drawings: a detailed remembrance of an unusual hotel room, studies of peaceful-looking female figures, or an architectural drawing of a street in Vancouver. The drawings exude humour and love: a friend cutting a dog's hair, a picnic view from a high perch, self-portraits of self-portraits. Innovative and intelligent, his hospitality to students, colleagues and world figures alike made him a well-loved professor.
The paintings, internationally recognised and exhibited regularly, are composed and formal yet saturated with his leisurely weekends sailing the B.C. Coast with Jessie. The nautical themes and the layered, regal, simple, ship forms portray a unique architectural style. The celebratory touches are often primary colours. The expanses of painted shapes are purely those of the coast he knew best.
Binning's monumental accomplishments on the scene of Vancouver's art and architecture placed the city on the cultural map internationally. In 1946 he helped to found the Art in Living Group, which in 1949 had a major show, Design for Living, at the Vancouver Art Gallery. His visits to Japan and collaborative personality made him an important figure in the negotiations for the Nitobe Garden
at U.B.C. He founded and presided over the U.B.C. Festival of the Contemporary Arts, a mold-breaking yearly avant-garde celebration spanning the decade of the 1960s in Vancouver, at the peak of which Marshall McLuhan
spoke in 1964.
Eventually he helped found the Department of Fine Art at U.B.C. and headed it. He presented many papers internationally; was on advisory boards; received innumerable grants, awards, fellowships, one-man shows and retrospective exhibitions. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1971. He retired in 1974. He died in 1976.
In 1997, the Bauhaus
-influenced home Binning designed for himself in 1941 in West Vancouver was declared a National Historic Site of Canada. His beloved Jessie, surviving him by 3 decades, had lived and managed his legacy there until then. His work continues to be shown regularly in Metro Vancouver - lately at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery and West Vancouver Museum; and is part of The Artists4Kids Trust.
and later taught at the school. In 1938-39, he took a year's leave of his teaching duties to study in London, England under Mark Gertler, Bernard Meninsky
and, most significantly, Henry Moore
. Upon his return to North America, he spent a brief period studying in New York at the Art Students League.
• West Vancouver Museum
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
; died 16 March 1976 in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
), popularly known as B. C. Binning, was a leading Canadian artist. In 1949, when he was teaching at the Vancouver School of Art (today's Emily Carr University of Art and Design,) he was invited by Fred Lasserre, the first director of the School of Architecture at The University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) to come and teach art to the architecture students. Binning, from a family of architects himself, taught that art, architecture and life are intimately connected.
Binning began to invite the leading architects in the Modernism movement in California to lecture in Vancouver (such as, in 1949 and 1953, Richard Neutra
Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.- Biography :Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was born into both-Jewish wealthy family...
, who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
; others included Peter Thornton, Peter Cotton, Ned Pratt, John Porter and Fred Hollingsworth). In this way he was instrumental in bringing West Coast modern architecture to Canada. He and his culturally aware wife Jessie (Wyllie) Binning (1906–2007) provided many opportunities in their home for these famous architects to mingle with his students.
Bert and Jessie Binning fostered close ties with the most recognized figures in art in Vancouver. They were friends with Lawren Harris
Lawren Harris
Lawren Stewart Harris, CC was a Canadian painter. He was born in Brantford, Ontario and is best known as a member the Group of Seven who pioneered a distinctly Canadian painting style in the early twentieth century. A. Y. Jackson has been quoted as saying that Harris provided the stimulus for the...
and his wife, artist Bess Harris. Those in his academic circle of intimates from art school were Gordon A. Smith
Gordon A. Smith
Gordon Appelbe Smith, born in East Brighton, England, is a Canadian painter, printmaker, sculptor, and teacher living in West Vancouver, British Columbia. Smith taught with contemporaries Alistair Bell, B.C...
and his wife Marion Smith, Orville Fisher, Fred Amess, John Koerner, Jack Shadbolt and his wife Doris Shadbolt, Lionel Thomas, and also Bruno Bobak and his wife Molly Lamb Bobak. It was an exciting time in the world art scene too. The oppressive constraints of Victorian attitudes toward art and architecture were being thrown off. In Europe it was the time of Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...
, Fauvism
Fauvism
Fauvism is the style of les Fauves , a short-lived and loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism...
, Cubism
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
, and the De Stijl
De Stijl
De Stijl , propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , and Bart van der Leck , and the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , and J.J.P. Oud...
movements.
In Binning's personal artistic practice he revealed his lifestyle. Known as an excellent draughtsman, he recorded his experiences in intricate line drawings: a detailed remembrance of an unusual hotel room, studies of peaceful-looking female figures, or an architectural drawing of a street in Vancouver. The drawings exude humour and love: a friend cutting a dog's hair, a picnic view from a high perch, self-portraits of self-portraits. Innovative and intelligent, his hospitality to students, colleagues and world figures alike made him a well-loved professor.
The paintings, internationally recognised and exhibited regularly, are composed and formal yet saturated with his leisurely weekends sailing the B.C. Coast with Jessie. The nautical themes and the layered, regal, simple, ship forms portray a unique architectural style. The celebratory touches are often primary colours. The expanses of painted shapes are purely those of the coast he knew best.
Binning's monumental accomplishments on the scene of Vancouver's art and architecture placed the city on the cultural map internationally. In 1946 he helped to found the Art in Living Group, which in 1949 had a major show, Design for Living, at the Vancouver Art Gallery. His visits to Japan and collaborative personality made him an important figure in the negotiations for the Nitobe Garden
Nitobe Memorial Garden
The Nitobe Memorial Garden is a 2½ acre traditional Japanese garden located at the University of British Columbia, just outside the city limits of Vancouver, Canada...
at U.B.C. He founded and presided over the U.B.C. Festival of the Contemporary Arts, a mold-breaking yearly avant-garde celebration spanning the decade of the 1960s in Vancouver, at the peak of which Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
spoke in 1964.
Eventually he helped found the Department of Fine Art at U.B.C. and headed it. He presented many papers internationally; was on advisory boards; received innumerable grants, awards, fellowships, one-man shows and retrospective exhibitions. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1971. He retired in 1974. He died in 1976.
In 1997, the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
-influenced home Binning designed for himself in 1941 in West Vancouver was declared a National Historic Site of Canada. His beloved Jessie, surviving him by 3 decades, had lived and managed his legacy there until then. His work continues to be shown regularly in Metro Vancouver - lately at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery and West Vancouver Museum; and is part of The Artists4Kids Trust.
Education
B. C. Binning started his studies in 1927 at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (shortly to become the Vancouver School of Art) under Frederick VarleyFrederick Varley
Frederick Horsman Varley, also known as Fred Varley , was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven artists.-Early life:Varley was born in Sheffield, England. He studied art in Sheffield and in Belgium...
and later taught at the school. In 1938-39, he took a year's leave of his teaching duties to study in London, England under Mark Gertler, Bernard Meninsky
Bernard Meninsky
Bernard Meninsky was a figurative artist, painter of figures and landscape in oils, watercolour and gouache, draughtsman and teacher. He was born in Karotopin now in the Ukraine but raised in Liverpool where he attended the Liverpool School of Art in 1906 after initially attending evening classes...
and, most significantly, Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
. Upon his return to North America, he spent a brief period studying in New York at the Art Students League.
Selected Commissions
- 1952 painted murals, O'Brien Advertising Centre, Vancouver
- 1952/53 interior architectural composition, B.C. Electric (Dal Grauer Substation, Vancouver)
- 1956 mosaic wall tile and facade colour scheme, B.C. Electric Building, Vancouver
- 1958 mosaic mural, Imperial Bank of Commerce, Vancouver
- 1963 colour design of Port Mann Bridge over Fraser River, B.C.
Selected Collections
- Art Gallery of OntarioArt Gallery of OntarioUnder the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
, Toronto - Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax
- Heffel GalleryHeffel GalleryThe Heffel Gallery Limited is a Canadian art gallery and fine art auction house headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1978 by businessman and art collector Kenneth G. Heffel, the gallery specializes in works by the Group of Seven as well as other significant Canadian and...
Ltd. - Morris and Helen Belkin Art GalleryMorris and Helen Belkin Art GalleryThe Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia....
, University of British Columbia - National Gallery of CanadaNational Gallery of CanadaThe National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, Ottawa - University of Lethbridge Art Gallery
- Vancouver Art GalleryVancouver Art GalleryThe Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
• West Vancouver Museum
External links
- Binning, Bertram Charles entry in the The Canadian Encyclopedia
- B. C. Binning Exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery (January 13 to April 29, 2007)
- B.C. Binning fonds at the University of British Columbia Archives
- B. C. Binning, Lethbridge College Buchanan Art Collection
- West Vancouver
- artists4kids
- Burnaby Art Gallery Presents I-Dent, Evelyn Roth & BC Binning
- 2007 B.C. Binning exhibition at Vancouver Art Gallery