Eli Bornstein | |
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Born |
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
28 December 1922
Nationality | American and Canadian |
Occupation | Artist |
Known for | "Structurist" reliefs |
Eli Bornstein is an American-born artist and teacher who has spent most of his life in Saskatchewan, Canada.
He is known for his three-dimensional reliefs.
Eli Bornstein was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 28, 1922.
He studied at the Chicago Art Institute for a short period in 1943, then went to the Milwaukee State Teachers' College, graduating with a BSc in 1945. From 1943 to 1947 he was a teacher at the Milwaukee Art Institute.
In 1949 Bornstein taught design at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
In 1950 Bornstein became head of the newly established Department of Fine Arts at the University of Saskatchewan. During his summer breaks he studied in Paris, France at the Académie de Montmartre of Fernand Léger in 1951 and at the Académie Julian in 1952. He also studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and obtained an MSc in 1954. Bornstein resigned from his position as head of the Fine Arts department in 1971. Bornstein became a Canadian citizen in 1972. He continued to teach art at the University of Saskatchewan until 1990, when he retired.
Bornstein's early drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures used abstract and cubist techniques to depict nature. In 1956 he won a commission from the Saskatchewan Teacher's Federation to make an abstract welded aluminum sculpture named "Growth Motif". He began to make three-dimensional "structurist" reliefs during a sabbatical in Italy and the Netherlands in 1957. In Europe he met and was influenced by artists such as Jean Gorin, Joost Baljeu, Anthony Hill, Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, Victor Pasmore and Georges Vantongerloo.
In 1960 he founded The Structurist, a journal that appears annually or biannually with each edition devoted to a particular theme. The journal was published by the University of Saskatchewan until 2010. As of 2017 he was still actively working. Bornstein is one of the most influential senior artists in the Canadian Prairies region.