Roland Brener; Sculptor (Great obit)
Hyfler/Rosner
Robert Amos
March 25, 2006 Saturday
Sculptor Roland Brener dies in Victoria at age 64
Very interesting work:
http://retiary.net/idea/idea4/idea_4/ptrsbrg/brenner.jpg
http://www.virtualcities.mcmaster.ca/artists/brener.html
http://www.tiafair.com/previous_fairs/tiaf2004/images/korper2.jpg
http://www.deitch.com/projects/project_images.php?slideShowId=146&projId=120
http://64.180.110.181/preview/previews/02-2005/Baden-Brener.html
Roland Brener taught a generation of artists at the
University of Victoria and left a legacy of quirky and
thought-provoking sculptures in major galleries throughout
this country. He died in Victoria on Wednesday at the age of
64.
Brener's constantly evolving sculptural practice took his
reputation worldwide. He was Canada's delegate to the Venice
Biennale in 1988, and is significantly represented in the
leading galleries of Canada. With colleague Mowry Baden,
Brener's work is currently the subject of a show of
sculpture at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Brener was born in South Africa in 1942 and later served in
the Israeli armed forces. From 1963 to 1966 he studied at
St. Martin's School of Art in London with noted British
sculptor Anthony Caro. Though Caro was dedicated to a
totally abstract modernism, he took his students to study
the Parthenon frieze at the British Museum.
According to Brener, his whole training was figurative at
its basis. Brener was also intrigued by materials that carry
their own cultural connotations. He felt no particular
allegiance to any school.
"I'm loose enough now," he commented, "not aligned with
modernism or any other -ism. I am letting go."
Accepting a professorship at the University of Victoria,
Brener moved here in 1972 and came to influence a generation
of students before his retirement in 2000. Working with "off
the shelf" materials like little electric motors, speakers
and lights, he created a form of assembled sculpture called
"bricolage," the sort of thing a home handyman might put
together.
Brener was Canada's delegate to the Venice Biennale in 1988,
where he made a big hit with an animated sculpture made from
a robotic Teddy Ruxpin doll. Originally, the plush toy
rolled its eyes and moved its mouth while a tape played.
Brener skinned the bear, revealing a mechanical biomorph,
and gave it a new voice. the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
owns this arresting sculpture.
A dedicated and skilful sailor, Brener arranged to have
famed Sidney boatbuilder Bent Jespersen create a fleet of
three Mini-12s in 1995. These are modelled on 12-metre ocean
racers, but are just four metres long. One, called Passage,
was cut along the "waterline" and appears to be sailing
briskly across the gallery floor. Another, called The Earl
of Gnosis, is a body-sized cabin lined with starry
upholstery. The reference to ship-burials is intentional. On
the occasion of their presentation to the Art Gallery of
Greater Victoria, Brener's bald head was indicative of a
recent chemotherapy treatment for a tumour on his brain.
After overcoming that cancer, Brener, with his wife Dama,
took his proper sailboat, Reality, out for a two-year
cruise. "During the time I was living on my boat, and my
computer was my laboratory," Brener told me later. He began
to design his sculptures on the screen and arranged for
their fabrication by others. Often they were figurative, and
Brener was soon hand-painting doll-sized models of himself
as a naked seven-year-old.
"You can do that stuff when you're older," Brener averred.
"My vanity has diminished to the point where I can deal with
myself without looking like a movie star or a hero. I never
know what's taboo."
Grant Watson, a former student of Brener's, fabricated
Brener's ideas for some years. With another Brener student,
Yoko Takashima, they created a large commissioned sculpture
for a plaza next to Toronto's National Ballet School in
2004. Looking down from the neighbouring office towers, you
see a cluster of 59 little stainless steel houses,
illuminated from within. It's a bit like a lilliputian
suburb at night. A similar installation, Capital Z, was
installed at (and subsequently purchased by) Canada's
National Gallery.
Other Brener creations have been purchased by the Art
Gallery of Ontario, the Musee d'Art Contemporain of Montreal
and Canada Council Art Bank. While his main dealer is Olga
Korper in Toronto, Brener's work has been exhibited in
England, Japan and the United States.
Roland Brener is survived by his wife, and daughter Amy.