Brüer was born in Rackheath, Norwich, moved to Great Yarmouth at an early age and continued to live and work there until he died this week. Brüer trained initially at Great Yarmouth College of Art before going to the Royal College of Art in the early 60s, just at the same time as Hockney, the Young Contemporaries and pop art were riding high in swinging London. Brüer retained his deep roots in the Western figurative tradition, underpinned by his exceptional graphical skills. He exhibited widely, including in London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Manchester, Cambridge, Finland and Belgium and his work is held in several public collections including Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
The paintings are often large in scale and in general reflect sharply on the ambiguity, joy and pain of human relationships. Motifs often reflect the classic subjects of artist and model, the nude, mother and child. Composed with a classical eye, the colours of his canvases are there for their maximal emotional impact. His technique is masterly, handling glazed layers of pigments, and different kinds of paint, with aplomb, while never losing his underlying skills as a draughtsman.
He has produced notable series of related works, including a remarkable series, starting in the 80s, of Circus Ring paintings and drawings, all produced from live observation locally at the circus at the Hippodrome in Yarmouth. Other series include the Night Shelter series, a series reflecting on the artist’s model as muse and a series of poignant paintings that celebrate his mother. Tidman had an unusually close and loving relationship with his mother, Charlotte, constructed around a bond of complicity forged when they fled together, and forever, when he was about nine or ten, from his father. This bond continued to tighten throughout their subsequent lives, ending finally with her death a few years ago at the age of 98. The mother as artist’s muse is not a common one in Western art, which makes this emotional, loving and cathartic series all the more important. From his early exquisite pencil drawings of her, usually around the kitchen table, the artist has documented and explored their relationship in a way that has few precedents.
Tidman’s passion for painting was in part ignited by the circus and the theatre. ncas members and others were privileged to enjoy an exhibition of his works at his Great Yarmouth studio in December 2023, followed by a trip to the Hippodrome Circus.
A member of a group of Great Yarmouth artists (the Yarmouth Five) including Katarzyna Coleman, Bridget Heriz, John Kiki and Emrys Parry, Brüer also established himself with his international reputation and identity. In 2022 Bruer was delighted to be commissioned to produce a portrait of the Lord Mayor of the City of London. His work was featured in all the publicity for the Lord Mayor of the City of London Show, a reflection of his long-standing relationship with the Lord Mayor and his wife.
A long-standing ncas member, Brüer's work was featured in ncas Port-2-Port exhibition in 2019.
We send our deepest sympathies to Brüer's family.
