Title

Brodzky, Horace.

Author

Butler, Roger

Source

[Not applicable]

Details

1981, revised 2009

Publication date

2009

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Horace Brodzky
by Roger Butler

Born in Melbourne, Horace Brodzky was the second son of Maurice Brodzky, journalist of The Herald and later publisher of Table Talk. In 1901, 1904 and 1905, he attended the National Gallery School, and in 1905 travelled to San Francisco and later New York. He moved to London in 1908 and studied at the City and Guilds Art School in Kensington during 1911. In that year he also visited Rome, Naples, and Sicily in the company of the American poet John Gould Fletcher. Between 1911 and 1915 he exhibited in England and joined with the London Group in 1914. He was closely associated with Gaudier-Brzeska during the years before Brzeska's death in 1915, after which he returned to New York. There he worked in paintings, woodcuts, etchings, theatre designs, art editing and journalism. During these eight years in New York he exhibited with the Temporary Group and formed a friendship with Jules Pascin.

The prints that he produced in the United States secured him a reputation as a leading contemporary artist. An etching such as From Bryant Park is a major exhibition print, while in his small drypoints Brodsky uses the etching plate like a page from a sketchbook. In 1920 Egmont Arens published a Portfolio of linocuts which brought together Brodzky's highly simplified New York prints in this technique.

Brodzky returned to London in 1923, where he lived until his death in 1969. His woodcuts and linocuts usually have a socialist leaning, while his many etchings and drypoints are of landscapes and nudes.

© Australianprints, 2009.