Rita Briansky (born July 25, 1925) is a Polish-born Canadian painter and printmaker. Briansky is associated with the Jewish Painters of Montreal.

Early life

Briansky emigrated to Ontario, Canada with her mother and two sisters in 1929. The year they arrived, the family moved to Ansonville in northern Ontario, then Val d'Or, Quebec in 1939, and then to Montreal in 1941. She studied with Alexander Bercovitch at the Y.W.H.A. (1941-1942); the

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

with

Jacques de Tonnancour Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour, LL. D. (3 January 1917 – 13 January 2005) was a Canadian artist and art educator from Montreal, Quebec. Life and work Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour was born on 3 January 1917 in Montreal, Quebec. He studied a ...

(1942-4); the Montreal School of Fine Arts with M. Carpentier (1944-1946); and the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...

, New York with Jan Carbino, Louis Bosa, H. Sternberg and V. Vytlacil (1946-1948) in New York City.A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada

Career

Briansky has a wide range of work: paintings, drawings, watercolours, pastels and prints. She held solo shows at the

(1957), (1962); and the Glenhyrst Arts Council, Brantford, Ontario (1965) (now the Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant) as well as many commercial galleries. Her group shows have included the Second International Biennial Exhibition of Prints, Tokyo and Osaka, Japan (1960-1961) and the United Nations, N.Y. (1965). In 1995, following travels in Poland to her birthplace and memorial sites, Briansky created the ''Kaddish Series'', reflecting on the tragedy of the Holocaust. This series (the Jewish Prayer for the Dead) is on permanent display at the

Jewish General Hospital The Jewish General Hospital (JGH; french: Hôpital général juif), known officially as the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital (french: Hôpital général juif Sir Mortimer B. Davis) since 1978, is an acute-care teaching hospital in M ...

in Montreal. Her work is included in the collections of the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

, the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec ( en, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is situated in Battlefield Park and is a complex consisting of four bui ...

, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the

Burnaby Art Gallery The Burnaby Art Gallery (abbreviated as BAG) is an art museum in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The museum is located on the northern periphery of Deer Lake Park, situated off of Deer Lake Avenue. The museum occupies Fairacres Mansion, a histor ...

the

Cape Breton University , "Diligence Will Prevail" , mottoeng = Perseverance Will Triumph , established = 1951 as Xavier Junior College 1968 as NSEIT 1974 as College Of Cape Breton 1982 as University College of Cape Breton 2005 as Cape Breton ...

Art Gallery, the

Winnipeg Art Gallery The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collect ...

, the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

, and many others. She also illustrated an anthology of children's short stories for the Gage Publishing Company called ''Rubaboo 4''. Briansky was a member of the Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers Society, and the

Canadian Society of Graphic Art The Canadian Society of Graphic Art (CSGA), originally called the Graphic Arts Club, was a non-profit organization of Canadian graphic artists. It was founded in 1904, and formally chartered in 1933. At one time it was one of the larger organizatio ...

. A full-length feature film ''The Wonder and Amazement - Rita Briansky on Her Life in Art'' was made by Janet Best and Dov Okouneff on her life and art in 2018. For more than 45 years, she has worked as a teacher, both of art history and studio art.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briansky, Rita 1925 births Living people 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists Polish emigrants to Canada Canadian printmakers Jewish Canadian artists Jewish painters 20th-century Canadian Jews 21st-century Canadian Jews Canadian women painters Women printmakers 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian printmakers Artists from Montreal Canadian art educators Canadian women educators Jews and Judaism in Montreal