Jack Beder

Polish - Canadian , 1910 - 1987

Born: Poland: Opatow 1910-03-14
Died: Canada: Quebec, Montreal 1987-11-27
Selected works
sold artworks
Jack Beder
1910-1987
Oil on masonite
10 x 14 in
Sold
Jack Beder
1910-1987
Bushes and spruce
Oil on canvas panel
10.75 x 13.75 in
Sold
Biography
" in terms of art, Jack Beder might well be Montreal's best kept secret".
Jack Beder was born in Opatów, Poland, in 1910. At the age of 16, he moved to Montreal to join his father. He studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal (Montreal School of Fine Arts) from 1929 to 1934 and made a living by designing advertisements. As a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art.

Jack Beder was known for his Montreal street scenes and 1930’s Montreal cafés, but also painted landscapes, still-lifes, gardens, and portraits/figures. Jack Beder was one of the most representative members of a group of artists known as the “Jewish Painters of Montreal” who depicted the social realism of the city during 1930s and 1940s. This term, first used by the media to describe the participants in the annual Young Men’s – Young Women’s Hebrew Association art show in the 1930s, was popularized by art historian Esther Trépanier in the 1980s.

He painted in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. He regularly participated in exhibitions of the Art Association of Montreal (beginning in 1931) and the Contemporary Arts Society of Montreal (as of 1939).

Studied at
Montreal School of Fine Arts (1929 – 1934)
Collections
Exhibitions
Awards
Professional Activities
Publications
Jack Beder, City Lights, by E.Trepanier/S.Paikowsky, Concordia University, 2004;
Biography and other examples in Jewish Painters and Modernity, Montreal 1930-1945, by E.Trepanier, pg.115, Centre Saidye-Bronfman, 1987;