It's Alive!

Saw a fascinating lecture connected to a new exhibit at the Art Gallery of Windsor dubbed It’s Alive: Bertram Brooker and Vitalism. The curator spoke with pointed insight about the thought of French vitalist philosopher Henri Bergson and his influence on Canadian modernism and Brooker in particular. A transplanted Brit, Brooker explored various media, and was influential in early film as well as being an award-winning author. In the 1920s, he started working in the advertising business, integrating vitalist understandings into his work, emphasizing dynamism, movement, and the quest to animate the inanimate.

Brooker manifested elements of Bergson’s philosophy in his exploration of ideas like “organic memory” and an unconventional, life-based understanding of the ineffable nature of time. He broke barriers in the Canadian “high” art world with his representations of the nude, and was a key link between European modernist movements (Futurists, Vorticists, etc…) and the Canadian scene (i.e. The Group of Seven). It was also suggested that his work had an impact on famed Canadian theorist Marshall McCluhan and his “organic” perspective on the nature of communication.

Intriguing stuff. Odd synchronicity to have run across it in this milieu. Reminds me I need a deeper appreciation of the way vitalist philosophies emerged and flourished in the early 20th century art world…