B. C. Binning
Nationality: Canadian
Born: 1909-10-02, Medicine Hat, Alberta
Died: 1976-03-16

Bertram Charles Binning was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta in 1909 and moved with his family to Vancouver in 1913. As a boy he spent much of his time visiting his grandfather’s architectural offices and when he moved to the west coast he was on the water much of the time, boating and fishing; both pastimes were to influence him as an artist later in life. In 1927, B.C. Binning began his career studying as a draftsman at the Vancouver School of Decorative Arts (now the Emily Carr College of Art and Design) where he became an instructor of drawing and commercial art five years later. At the school Binning’s teachers were Charles H. Scott, W.P. Weston, Jock Macdonald and most significantly, Fred Varley, from whom he was taught the importance of drawing in the artistic process.

Having already established an exhibition career, in 1938, Binning took educational leave and travelled to Eastern Canada, the United States and abroad to London, England. In addition to taking in exhibitions, such as a large show of Picasso works, Binning took classes with artists Bernard Meninsky, Amedée Ozenfant, Mark Gertler and Henry Moore.

Upon his return to Canada, Binning focused his drawing practice on marine themes along the B.C. coast, integrating modernist forms and concepts with his distinct whimsical style. In 1948, when Binning took leave from teaching again, he devoted himself to painting, in which he continued to emphasize the internal structure and formal imperative of his compositions, and has been said to emerge as the "exponent of a new architecture in paint." In Binning’s paintings, his link to Le Corbusier and Ozenfant’s "purism" ideals of order, geometry, balance and harmony become evident. Binning retained a commitment to the geometric discipline during a period when gestural abstraction was being established as a prevailing force in avant–garde art.

In the 1950s, Binning also taught in the Architecture Department at the University of British Columbia and turned his attention to architectural and mural projects throughout the city of Vancouver as a means of integrating Modernism in everyday life. In 1955, Binning founded U.B.C.’s Fine Arts Department, which he ran until 1968.