Draft:Jack Beder

Jack Beder was born on March 14, 1910, in Opatów, a town northeast of Cracow, Poland. His parents, Moishe Melech and Chana Pearl, managed a bakery, which was inherited from his fathers parents.

In 1925, economic downturns at home and the looming war propelled his family to consider migration. Jack’s father decided to move to Canada, prompted by relatives already established in Montreal. Prior to joining his father Jack apprenticed as a sign painter in Warsaw, though the stint was brief due to challenging living conditions.

Jack migrated to Canada in 1925 and lived in Montreal where he worked painting signs. He contracted tuberculosis and was sent to live at the Mount Sinai Sanatorium in the Laurentians. He spent two years here before returning to Montreal where he met his wife Katie and began to dedicate himself to his career as an artist.

Jack traveled all over Canada to paint and was a member of the Montreal Jewish Society of Painters, he died November 27, 1987 due to a heart condition.

"Jews have excelled in literature, music and the visual arts, as well. While names like Mordecai Richler and Leonard Cohen are iconic of Montreal, the community produced an extraordinary number of fine painters, especially through the ’40s and ’50s. Among the works on display are those of Moe Reinblatt, Jack Beder and Louis Muhlstock."

"- and two by Jack Beder, hint at the diversity of Canadian sculpture after the Second World War. Beder’s 1962 and 1965 sculptures were made decades after he made a name for himself as a painter in the 1930s among a group of Jewish painters in Montreal. Along with Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, Louis Muhlstock, and Moe Reinblatt, Beder’s paintings conveyed the city as variously dynamic and desolate in its realism. Decades later, with lot 28, Bird Form (Sculpture #6) and lot 2, Sonic Form (Sculpture #22) Beder explored form unconstrained by realism."

Permanent Collections

 * Grain Elevator and Yards - Jack Beder
 * Beaverbrook Art Gallery - Jack Beder
 * McCord Museum - Jack Beder
 * National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec - Jack Beder
 * Museum of London Ontario - Jack Beder