A pioneer in modernism
======================


*Assembling Sounds: the Drawings and Illustrations of Bertram Brooker* is at the Winnipeg Art Gallery ([www.wag.mb.ca](http://www.wag.mb.ca)) until Jan. 2, 2000. Brooker (1888-1955) played a significant role as an artist, musician, writer and champion of the arts in Canada between the two World Wars and has been described as the country's first abstract painter. His move away from representational art toward abstraction stemmed from his desire to express spiritual ideas and to unify painting with other arts such as poetry and music - interests he shared with his friend Lawren Harris, unofficial leader of the Group of Seven. Presented in tandem with an exploration of his painting and writing in *Sounds Assembling: Bertram Brooker in Winnipeg Collections,* this exhibition of graphic work features 70 abstract drawings, nature studies and illustrations - work that Brooker considered as important as his painting. *Sounds Assembling,* his most famous piece, represents a spiritual journal through time, space and sound. FIGURE

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/161/12/1569.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/161/12/1569.2/F1)

Figure. **Bertram Brooker,** *Sounds Assembling,* 1928. Oil on canvas, 112.3 × 91.7 cm