Barker Fairley (1887-1986) British/Canadian, Abstract Oil on Canvasboard. Signed bottom left. Name written on back of frame. 

Overall Size: 8 1/4 x 13 3/4 in. 

Sight Size: 5 x 10 1/2 in. 

Barker Fairley was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England on May 21st, 1887 who was educated at Leeds and earned a Ph.D. from Jena University in Germany in 1907. He taught there briefly before taking a faculty position at University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada in 1910, and in 1915 became a professor at the University of Toronto’s German Department, a position he held for many decades. Throughout his long career he exerted a profound influence on Canada’s emerging intellectual and artistic landscape, and was an essential early champion and close friend of the Group of Seven, helping to secure their acceptance in the Canadian art world through his critical writing and personal promotion. In 1920 he co-founded The Canadian Forum, a magazine he used alongside his first wife, Margaret, to defend avant-garde art and provide a platform for cultural commentary. Fairley was also an accomplished painter whose work reflected the style of his peers, and he was ultimately honored as an Officer of the Order of Canada for his unique contributions to national scholarship, with most of his works held by the Hart House Art Museum since his death on October 11th, 1986.

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