Sources & Resources

Eli Bornstein is a prolific writer whose many critical and theoretical articles have been included in national and international anthologies. Most prominently, they were included in the periodical The Structurist, which Bornstein published and edited out of the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, annually from 1960 to 1972 and then biennially until 2000, with anniversary issues in 2010 and 2020. He is also a journal keeper. The major curators/historians to have dealt with his work are Jonneke Fritz-Jobse and Oliver A.I. Botar.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Exhibitions

Writings by the Artist

“Abstract Art on the Prairies.” Perspectives of Saskatchewan. Ed. Jene M. Porter. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2009. Pages 273–88.

“The Constructed Relief as a New Medium.” Structure in Art. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan, 1973). Pages 17–23.

“Continuity and Renewal: A Place for Art.” Eli Bornstein: A New Awareness of Beauty. Vancouver: Initial Gallery, 2015. Exhibition catalogue.

Eli Bornstein: Arctic Journals 1986 and 1987. Introduction by Roald Nasgaard. Vancouver: Figure 1, 2022.

Eli Bornstein’s personal journal, 1990–2017, 1,136 typewritten pages, unpublished except for excerpts in two Mendel Art Gallery exhibition catalogues: Mendel (1996), pp. 38–46, and Mendel (2013), pp. 32–39.

“Notes on Art-I.” Statements: 18 Canadian Artists. Regina: Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, 1967. Pages 24–29.

“Notes on structurist process.” DATA: Directions in Art, Theory and Aesthetics. Ed. Anthony Hill. London: Faber and Faber, 1968. Pages 192–203.

“Notes on Structurist Vision.” Canadian Art Today. Ed. William Townsend. London: Studio International, 1970. Pages 52–55.

“Of Time in Art and Nature.” Time as a Human Resource. Ed. E.J. McCullough and R.L. Calder. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1991. Pages 257–63.

“Pioneering Abstract Art on the Prairies.” A Celebration of Canada’s Arts 1930–1970. Ed. Glen Carruthers and Gordana Lazarevich. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1996. 147–52.

“Structurist Art and Creative Integration.” Art International 11 (April 1967). Pages 31–36.

“Transitions toward the New Art.” Structure no. 1 (1958). Pages 1, 30–46.

Selected Critical Writings on the Artist’s Work

Botar, Oliver A.I. “‘The constructed relief is an art at the mercy of light.’” An Art at the Mercy of Light: Recent Work by Eli Bornstein. Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 2013. Exhibition catalogue with contributions from Eli Bornstein and Rodney La Tourelle. https://valmesta.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/soa_catalogue_anartatthemercyoflight_elibornstein.pdf.

———. “The poetics of Eli Bornstein’s Art of Light, Structure and Perception.” Eli Bornstein: Constructed Works from 1960 to Present. Victoria: Winchester Modern, 2015. Exhibition catalogue.

———. “The Importance of Eli Bornstein.” Eli Bornstein. Saskatoon: Darrell Bell Gallery, 2017. Exhibition catalogue.

Fritz-Jobse, Jonneke. Eli Bornstein: Art Toward Nature. Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 1996. Exhibition catalogue with contributions by Eli Bornstein, and a detailed list of exhibitions and bibliography to 1996.

———. De Stijl Continued: The Journal Structure (1958–1964): An Artists’ Debate. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2005.

Greenberg, Clement. “Painting and Sculpture in Prairie Canada.” Canadian Art (March–April, 1961). Reprinted in Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 4. Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957–1969. Ed. John O’Brian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Pages 153–75.

Hayton, Harold. “The Structurist Movement.” Chicago Omnibus (May 1967). Pages 58–62.

Karpuszko, Kazimir. Eli Bornstein: Selected Works / Œuvres choisies, 1957–1982. Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 1982. Exhibition catalogue including catalogue raisonné, 1957–1982.

Leclerc, Denise. The Crisis of Abstraction in Canada: The 1950s. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1992. Pages 95–96.

Nasgaard, Roald. Abstract Painting in Canada. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2007. Pages 292–93.

———. “To Invent the Truth” Artist in Focus: Eli Bornstein. Saskatoon: Remai Modern, 2019. Exhibition catalogue.

Nemiroff, Diana. “Geometric Abstraction after 1950.” The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century. Eds. Anne Whitelaw, Brian Foss, and Sandra Paikowsky. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pages 218–19.

Nordland, Gerald. Eli Bornstein. New York: Forum Gallery, 2007. Exhibition catalogue.

Regan, Ron. “A New Awareness of Beauty.” Eli Bornstein, A New Awareness of Beauty. Vancouver: Initial Gallery, 2015. Exhibition catalogue.

Recent Interviews: Print and Television

Enright, Robert. “Plane Talk: An Interview with Eli Bornstein.” BorderCrossings no. 128 (December 2013). https://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/plane-talk.

”galaMODERN honours Eli Bornstein. July 4, 2019.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nUPqShJGVE.

Grebinski, Leisha. A look at the home of artist Eli Bornstein. CBC Saskatoon, September 11, 2019.