Ed Bartram, OSA

Canadian

Born: Canada: Ontario, London 1938-03-21
Died: Canada: Ontario, Toronto 2019-08-25
Selected works
Edward John Bartram
1938-2019
Portage Pool
Etching
25 x 39 1/2 in (sight)
CAD 1100
Edward John Bartram
1938-2019
Georgian Suite #6
Etching
9 x 11 1/2 in
CAD 675
Edward John Bartram
1938-2019
Georgian Suite #2
Etching
9 x 11 1/2 in
CAD 675
sold artworks
Edward John Bartram
1938-2019
Island edge #2, Precambrian shield series
Etching
24 x 18 in
Sold
Edward John Bartram
1938 – 2019
Whaleback #2, Georgian Bay
Etching
17 x 23 in
Sold
Edward John Bartram
1938-2019
Whaleback #3
Etching
34.75 x 29 in ( sheet )
30 x 25 in (sight)
Sold
Edward John Bartram
1938-2019
Coastal Rock #3 Nova Scotia
Etching
23 x 30 in
Sold
Biography
I have worked every summer for over fifty years in or near my Bartram Island studio, taking inspiration from the banded gneisses and migmatites of Georgian Bay's Thirty Thousand Islands. My prints and paintings are not just of rocks and islands but are a testament to the primordial forces that created the nucleus of the continent, the Canadian Shield. My work interprets the forces of nature as revealed on these Precambrian surfaces, made visible by the cleansing and polishing power of ice and water.
Bartram developed his professional art practice in the mid 1960s. In 1965, after buying an island on Georgian Bay, he reconnected with the rocks of the Canadian Shield and made them his subject matter for the rest of his career. Bartram lived and worked in King City, Ontario and Bartram Island, Georgian Bay.

In the 1950s, on a canoe trip to Georgian Bay with his friends, he discovered Bartram Island (named after him in 1991) which he bought around 1965. Although in the 1960s, he had experimented with abstract prints and paintings, around 1970, on the island, he had a revelation. In Georgian Bay, he was surrounded by abstract rock surfaces that revealed the passage of time. He conceived of the scene as providing a metaphor for the way he made prints since in using an etching plate and gouging and scraping it, he felt he was reenacting the primordial forces he saw in action on the rockscape.The island, marked by glaciation, offered him a perspective through which he understood the natural world. The rocks of Georgian Bay and their surfaces became his theme and remained so for his entire life.

Studied at
B.A. from the University of Western Ontario
M.A. in Art and Archeology from the University of Toronto.
Collections
Art Gallery of Hamilton;
Art Gallery of Ontario;
Museum London;
Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound;
Air Canada;
Bell Canada;
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation;
Canadian National Railways;
Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada;
Ernst and Young;
Four Seasons Hotels;
Fuji Bank, Japan;
George Weston Ltd.;
London Life Insurance;
RBC Financial Group;
Scotiabank;
Swiss Bank;
T.D. Financial
Trinity College, University of Toronto.
Exhibitions
Awards
Professional Activities
Bartram taught art at Lawrence Park Collegiate,
Printmaking Instructor at Central Technical School, Toronto (1971-1986)
Intaglio Instructor at The Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto (1985-2003).
Publications
Bartram, Ed; Murray, Joan (2014). Ed Bartram: Rockscapes of Georgian Bay. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
Wylie, Liz (1998). In the Wilds: Canoeing and Canadian Art. Kleinburg, Ontario: McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Retrieved January 16, 2021.