Born at Wawelowska, Poland in 1923, Bruno Bobak emigrated to Canada in 1927. At the age of thirteen he began Saturday morning art classes in Toronto under Arthur Lismer and later at the Central Technical School.
In 1942 he joined the army and was shortly thereafter selected to be an official war artist. He married fellow war artist Molly Lamb in 1945.
He and Molly settled briefly in Ottawa after the war working as artists and moved to Vancouver in 1947 where he taught at the Vancouver School of Art.
After a decade of work as an artist and instructor of art on the west coast, where he won much critical acclaim, he moved his family to Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1960 to serve as artist in residence at the University of New Brunswick. In 1962 he took on the role of Director of the University of New Brunswick Art Center.
Bruno retired in 1986 and has since devoted his time to painting, gardening and fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon. Bruno Bobak is a member of the Canada Group of Painters, Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers, Canadian Society of Graphic Art, Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, British Columbia Society of Artists, and the Royal Canadian Academy.
He has participated in more than two hundred and fifty group exhibitions and has had more than eighty one-man shows, both in Canada and abroad.
Awards and Honours
1954 Jesse Dow Prize, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal for watercolour “Eclipse”.
1955 C.W. Jeffries Award, Canadian Society of Graphic Art.
1957 Monsanto ArtCompetition, Montreal, Royal Canadian Government Overseas Fellowship
1960 First Prize, Exhibition of Contemporary Art. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
1972 Canada Council Senior Fellowship
1978 Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal
1982 Campus Gates, 1964 chosen for reproduction on Canada 30-cent postage stamp, issued June 30
1984 Designed N.B. Bicentennial medallion
1984 Honorary Doctor of Letters from Saint Thomas University.
1986 Honorary Doctor of Literature from University of New Brunswick.
1995 Order of Canada
Collections
Agnes Hetherington Art Centre,Queen's University,Kingston, Ontario
Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, B.C.
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario
Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto, Ontario
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick
The Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Ontario
Canadian War Museum
National Museum of Manitoba
National Museums of Canada, Ottawa
C-I-L Art Collection, Toronto, Ontario
Concordia University Collection of Art, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Dalhousie Art Gallery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.
Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.
Hart House, University of Toronto, Ontario
Lavalin Inc., Montreal, Quebec
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, U.K.
The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec
Museum Narodowego, Warsaw, Polland
The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
New Brunswick Art Bank, Province of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B.
The New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, N.B.
Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina, Regina,Saskatchewan
Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway
Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, N.B.
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
South London Art Gallery, London, U.K.
Toronto Dominion Bank, Toronto, Ontario
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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Molly Lamb Bobak was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in1920, the daughter of Harold Mortimer-Lamb and Alice Mary Price.
She began her formal art training in 1938 at the Vancouver School of Art under the tutelage of Jack Shadbolt. She joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps (C.W.A.C.) in 1942 rose to lieutenant and became the first official female War Artist with the Canadian Army in Europe, 1945-46. She married fellow war artist Bruno Bobak in 1945. They have two children, Alexander (1946) and Anny (1957)
After the war, she and Bruno settled briefly in Ottawa returning to Vancouver in 1947 where she worked as an instructor in painting at the Vancouver School of Art.
A French Government Scholarship in 1950 permitted her to study in Paris. For the remainder of the decade she continued her own artistic pursuits as well as teaching extensively and doing radio work.
In 1960 she moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick with Bruno who became Artist-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick Art Centre.
A Canada Council Grant in 1961 allowed her to study in Norway before returning to take up permanent residency in Fredericton in 1962 where she devoted much of her time to teaching art through Extension Programs at UNB, workshops at the Banff School of Art, the Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre, and the Alberta College of Art.
Throughout this period she continued to paint and has had numerous group and one-person shows.
Molly has served on the Boards of the National Film Board, the Stamp Design Council, the National Capital Commission and the National Gallery Advisory Board.
Molly Bobak is a member of the Canada Group of Painters, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Royal Canadian Academy.
She was accorded a major travelling retrospective exhibition by the MacKenzie Art Gallery in 1993 and has received honorary degrees from UNB (1983), Mount Allison University (1984) and Saint Thomas University (1994).
Awards and Honours
Third prize, Canadian Army Art Competition, 1944
First prize, Graphic Art Society, 1966.
French Government scholarship for study in France, 1950-51
Canada Council fellowship for study in Europe, 1960-61.
Doctor of Fine Arts, Mount Allison University, 1984
Doctor of Letters, University of New Brunswick, 1983
Doctor of Laws, Saint Thomas University, 1994
Member of R.C.A. Order of Canada, 1995
Exhibitions (One-person shows)
Vancouver Art Gallery,
1940 Vancouver Art Gallery, 1950-60
New Design Gallery, Vancouver, 1950-60
Waddington Gallery, Montreal, 1950-60
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1962
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1964
Wells Gallery, Ottawa, 1965
The National Gallery of Canada (travelling show), 1965
Dalhousie University Art Gallery, 1966
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1967
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, 1968
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1970
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1971
Sir George Williams Art Galleries, Montreal, 1972
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, 1975.
The New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, 1977
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, 1980
Gallery 78, Fredericton, 1983
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, 1985; 1987; 1989; 1993
Retrospective travelling exhibition, 1993-1994
MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N.B.
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C.
Group Exhibitions Exhibition of Canadian Paintings, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1944
Canadian Women Artists, Riverside Museum, New York, 1947
Sao Paulo Biennial, Museu de Arte Moderna, 1951
Festival of Britain, London, 1951
German Industries Fair, Berlin, 1953
Canadian Painting Exhibition, Pakistan, India and Ceylon, 1954-55
International Print Exhibition, Lugano, Switzerland.
Second, Third and Fourth Biennial Exhibitions of Canadian Painting,
The National Gallery of Canada, 1957, 1959, and 1961
Collections
The National Art Gallery of Canada
The Art Gallery of Ontario
The Vancouver Art Gallery
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
The Art Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
The University of New Brunswick
The University of British Columbia
The Confederation Center
The Beaverbrook Gallery
The National War Museum
The Canadian Council Art Bank
The New Brunswick Art Bank
Publications
Wildflowers of Canada – Pagurian Press Ltd., 1978
Toes in My Nose (illustrator) – Doubleday Canada Ltd. 1987
Merry-Go-Day (illustrator) – Doubleday of Canada Lltd. 1991
Double Duty: Sketches and Diaries of Molly Lamb Bobak Canadian War Artist, Dundum Press Ltd. 1992
Molly Lamb Bobak: A Retrospective, Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1993
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