Rex Brandt

Rex Brandt was born in 1914 in San Diego, California to Alfred O. Brandt, a Swedish immigrant, and Ellen Dale Woodward. His family later moved to Los Angeles and then Riverside, California where he graduated from high school. While still in high school he took art classes at the Chouinard School of Art. He attended Riverside Junior College and went on to get his bachelor's degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1936. While at Berkeley he was exposed to the ideas of Hans Hoffman, who had recently taught there. He studied Chinese landscape painting, Byzantine art, and the modernist painters Cézanne, Picasso, and Matisse.

Brandt returned to Riverside Junior College as a professor of art in 1937. Also in that year, he helped organize an exhibition of forty-five paintings by artists, many of whom are associated with California Scene Painting. Among the artists represented were Brandt, Millard Sheets, Barse Miller, Phil Dike, Milford Zornes, and George Post.{{Cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa50.htm|title=The California Water Color Society: Genesis of an American Style, essay by Janet Blake Dominik|website=www.tfaoi.com|access-date=2019-09-14}}

In March 1938, Brandt married the sculptor and painter Joan Irving, whom he had met at Riverside Junior College. In 1943, Brandt, having left Riverside Junior College, moved with his young family to Corona del Mar, just south of Newport Beach, where they had purchased property. He named his property "Blue Sky" and it was there he lived and worked throughout the rest of his life. He opened a summer painting school at "Blue Sky" in 1947 and the school remained in operation through 1985 when it closed due to increasing urbanization. Brandt also expanded his sources of income beyond painting and teaching; he worked as a designer for West Coast Ship Building and formed his own commercial and residential design firm, Rex Brandt Associates. Brandt was active in the civic life of the Newport Beach area; he was one of the original members of the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission of Newport Beach, he designed the city's official seal, and helped plan the state beach at Corona Del Mar.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rccd.edu/Documents/RCC%20Countdown%202013/RCC100yr07_02_2013.pdf|title=Countdown to Riverside City College's 100th Anniversary|date=July 2, 2013|access-date=August 13, 2019}}

Brandt also spent considerable time in the San Juan Islands. He purchased property on Orcas Island in 1964. Then in 1966 Brandt and his wife built a second home on Shaw Island where they typically spent a few months a year.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sanjuanco.com/171/Recorded-Document-Search|title=Online Document Search {{!}} San Juan County, WA|website=San Juan County, Washington|access-date=2019-09-21}} During his time in the San Juans, Brandt reestablished his print making practice, he wrote: "I've turned again to an early love of block cutting because its power and simplicity express the way I feel about the San Juan Islands."{{Cite web|url=http://www.darvillsrareprints.com/images/Rex%20Brandt/Orcas-Landing-Rex-Brandt-card-back.jpg|title=Island Art Card Series 202|last=Brandt|first=Rex|date=September 20, 2019|website=Darvills Rare Prints}}

He died at his home in Corona del Mar at the age of 85.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-23-me-11948-story.html|title=Landscape Painter Rex Brandt Dies|date=2000-03-23|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-21}} Retrospective exhibitions have been mounted by the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum (2000) and the Laguna Art Museum (2014).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ocregister.com/2014/07/20/laguna-art-museum-presents-60-years-of-rex-brandt/|title=Laguna Art Museum presents 60 years of Rex Brandt|date=2014-07-20|website=Orange County Register|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-23}}

• First in Watercolor for Bay Breeze, California State Fair, 1934.
• First in Prints for Building the Bridges, Los Angeles County Fair, 1936.
• Director, Riverside Junior College Art Center, 1938–1943.
• Vice-president, California Watercolor Society, 1947.
• President, California Watercolor Society, 1949.
• American Artist Special Citation for The Brothers Light, American Water Color Society Annual Exhibition, 1952.
• Associate Academician, National Academy of Design, 1955.
• Brugger Award for Going to the Race, California Water Color Society Exhibition, 1956
• Vice President, American Watercolor Society, 1965–1969
• Samuel F. B. Morse medal for the painting Morning: Rocky Point, National Academy of Design, 1968.
• Lily Saportas Award for the painting Morning: Rocky Point, American Watercolor Society, 1968.
• Life Fellow, Royal Society of the Arts, 1972.
• Full Academician, National Academy of Design, 1974.
• Dolphin Fellow, American Watercolor Society, 1981.
• Teacher Achievement Award for Watercolor, American Artist, 1993.
• Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award, Orange County Arts Awards, 2000 (posthumous).

• {{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112096609323&view=1up&seq=1|title=Watercolor with Rex Brandt|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Self Published|year=1948|location=Corona del Mar, CA|author-mask=0}} Instructional handbook for watercolor painters based on Brandt's teaching at the Chouinard Art Institute and at the Brandt-Dike Summer School. Similar in content to his Watercolor Technique in 15 Lessons.
• {{Cite book|title=The Composition of Landscape Painting|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Self Published|year=1959|location=Corana del Mar, CA|author-mask=0}} Subtitled: "The dynamic integration of graphic elements from land and sea for expression". A similar, softbound edition was self published by Brandt entitled Notes on the Composition of Landscape Painting.
• {{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822016139842&view=1up&seq=9|title=Watercolor Technique in 15 Lessons|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Rienhold Book Corporation|year=1963|edition=6th rev.|location=New York|author-mask=0}} Watercolor instruction, also includes an essay on painting entitled "Watercolor – A Way Of Seeing". Several other editions of the book were published.
• {{Cite book|title=Watercolor Landscape|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Reinhold Pub. Corp.|year=1963|location=New York|author-mask=0}} Beside its instructional chapters on watercolor painting, the book includes a chapter on the historical background of watercolor painting. In addition to Brandt's own work, the book features work from other artists including Millard Sheets, Barse Miller, Phil Dike and George Post.
• {{Cite book|title=The Artist's Sketchbook and Its Uses|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Reinhold Pub. Corp.|year=1966|location=New York|author-mask=0}}
• {{Cite book|title=Rex Brandt's San Diego: Land of the Sundown Sea|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Best-West Publications|year=1969|location=Palm Desert, CA|author-mask=0}} A tribute to the city where he was born; paintings and drawings made by the artist over several months of travel in and around San Diego.
• {{Cite book|title=The Winning Ways of Watercolor|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold Co|year=1973|location=New York|author-mask=0}} Subtitled: "Basic techniques and methods of transparent watercolor in twenty lessons". Watercolor painting instruction. Also published in paperback.
• {{Cite book|title=Watercolor Techniques and Methods: The Twenty Basic Lessons adapted from the winning ways of watercolor for easy student and studio use|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold Co|year=1977|location=New York|author-mask=0}}
• {{Cite book|title=West Coast Sketchbook|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Self Published|year=1978|location=Corona del Mar, CA|author-mask=0}}
• {{Cite book|title=Seeing with a Painter's Eye|last=Brandt|first=Rex|date=1984|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold|edition=2nd|location=New York|author-mask=0}} Originally self published 1981, several later editions also published. Subtitled: "Notes on the composition of paintings from the Brandt Painting Workshops". An analysis of the fundamental facets of painting including psychology of the artist, line, value, color, and composition.
• {{Cite book|title=About Landscape: Selected Statements|last=Brandt|first=Rex|publisher=Self Published|year=1989|location=Corona del Mar, Calif.|author-mask=0}}

• {{Cite book|title=Rex Brandt: A Portfolio of Recent Works Commemorating the First 25 Years of the Brandt Workshop At Corona del Mar|publisher=Unicorn Press|year=1972|editor-last=Muller|editor-first=Jerome K.|location=Santa Ana, CA}}
• {{Cite book|title=Rex Brandt: In Praise of Sunshine|last=Blake|first=Janet|publisher=Laguna Art Museum|year=2014|location=Laguna Beach, CA}} Published in conjunction with a retrospective exhibit of Brandt's work. Includes numerous reproductions of Brandt's work as well as a biography, chronology, list of classes taught by Brandt, and a list of publications by Brandt.

• {{Cite book|title=Seascapes and Landscapes in Watercolor|last=Kent|first=Norman|publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications|year=1956|location=New York}}
• {{Cite book|title=Composition in Landscape and Still Life|last=Watson|first=Ernest William|publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications|year=1959}} Republished 2007 by Dover Publications.
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/transparentwater00brom|title=Transparent Watercolor; ideas and techniques|last=Brommer|first=Gerald F.|date=1973|publisher=Davis Publications|location=Worcester, Mass.|isbn=9780871920546}}
• {{Cite book |last=Betts |first=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/masterclassinwat0000bett |title=Master Class in Watercolor |publisher=Watson-Guptill |year=1975 |publication-place=New York |author-link=Edward H. Betts |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/experimentalwate00shac/page/n55|title=Experimental Watercolor Techniques|last=Shackelford|first=Bud|publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications|year=1980|location=New York|isbn=9780823016198}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/practicalguidefo00grif|title=A Practical Guide for Beginning Painters|last=Griffith|first=Thomas|publisher=Prentice-Hall|year=1981|location=Englewood Cliffs, N.J.}}
• {{Cite book|title=The California style : California watercolor artists, 1925–1955|last=McClelland, Gordon.|date=1985|publisher=Hillcrest Press|others=Last, Jay T.|location=Beverly Hills, CA}}
• {{Cite book|title=American scene painting : California, 1930s and 1940s|last=Westphal|first=Ruth Lilly|date=1991|publisher=Westphal Pub|others=Dominik, Janet B.|location=Irvine, Calif.}}

{{reflist | refs=

[http://lagunaartmuseum.org/rex-brandt-in-praise-of-sunshine/ "Rex Brandt: In Praise of Sunshine"]. Laguna Art Museum website, June 29–September 21, 2014.

}}

• Rex Brandt holdings at the [https://americanart.si.edu/artist/rex-brandt-552 Smithsonian American Art Museum]
• [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?type%5B%5D=all&lookfor%5B%5D=rex%20brandt&filter%5B%5D=country_of_pub_facet%3AUnited%20States&pagesize=20&ft=ft Two public domain books by Rex Brandt] at the Hathi Trust Digital Library

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Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:Stanford University alumni

Category:1914 births

Category:2000 deaths

Category:Painters from California

Category:American male painters

Category:American watercolorists

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:20th-century American male artists