BORNSTEIN, ELI

BORNSTEIN, ELI (1922– ), Canadian artist. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Bornstein studied in the United States   and with Fernand Léger in Paris. He went to Canada in 1950, and later became head of the department of art at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Bornstein headed the structurist school, which was centered in Saskatoon, and edited its magazine The Structurist. The structurists created a pure, geometric abstract form of art which they felt to be a development of the tradition of Cézanne and the cubists. Their favorite art form was the structurist relief, "a new synthesis of the color of painting and the actual form and space of sculpture." Bornstein received many commissions to execute such reliefs for public buildings and created one in five parts for an exhibition commemorating the centenary of the Canadian Confederation in 1967. (Yael Dunkelman)