B. C. Binning

Who was B. C. Binning?

Bertram Charles Binning, popularly known as B. C. Binning, was a leading Canadian artist. In 1949, when he was teaching at the Vancouver School of Art he was invited by Fred Lasserre, the first director of the School of Architecture at The University of British Columbia to come and teach art to the architecture students. Binning, from a family of architects himself, taught that art, architecture and life are intimately connected.

Binning invited Richard Neutra, one of the leading architects in the Modernism movement in California, to lecture in Vancouver in 1949 and 1953. He and his culturally aware wife Jessie Binning provided many opportunities in their home for artist, writers and architects to mingle.

Bert and Jessie Binning fostered close ties with the most recognized figures in art in Vancouver. They were friends with Lawren Harris and his wife, artist Bess Harris. Those in his academic circle of intimates from art school were Gordon A. Smith and his wife Marion Smith, Orville Fisher, Fred Amess, John Koerner, Jack Shadbolt and his wife Doris Shadbolt, Lionel Thomas, and also Bruno Bobak and his wife Molly Lamb Bobak. It was an exciting time in the world art scene too. The oppressive constraints of Victorian attitudes toward art and architecture were being thrown off. In Europe it was the time of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, and the De Stijl movements.