John Grierson (right), National Film Board Commissioner, and Harry Mayerovitch, director of the Wartime Information Board’s Graphic Arts Division, examine posters in 1944.
Photo Credit : National Film Board
Newspaper clipping about Harry Mayerovitch in the Montreal Gazette, 1976.
Photo Credit : Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives
The Cutter, Harry Mayerovitch, 1954, Oil on masonite, 61 x 45.8 cm. Gift of Ms. Julie Dorsey, Mr. David Mayerovitch, Ms. Nina Mayerovitch Picton, Mr. Robert Mayerovitch. M2010.62.3
Exterior of the Jewish Public Library on Mount Royal and de l’Esplanade, ca. 1960. Designed by Harry Mayerovitch.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
"The World in Action presents, “The Battle of Europe,” a National Film Board Production", 1944-1945.
Photo Credit : Harry Mayerovitch. Library and Archives Canada, C-115706
1910 - 2004
Harry Mayerovitch
By turns an architect, painter, creator of propaganda posters, author and accordion player, Harry Mayerovitch left a unique mark on Canada’s arts and culture landscape.
Born in Montreal to a family of Romanian Jewish immigrants, Mayerovitch grew up in the town of Rockland, Ontario. He returned to Montreal at age 15, and went on to study law at McGill University. There, he developed a passion for drawing and the arts and decided to switch gears, enrolling in the School of Architecture, from which he earned his degree in 1933.
In 1935, after working with renowned architect Percy Nobbs, Mayerovitch entered into partnership with Alan Bernstein. The buildings he designed over the course of his career include the former Jewish Library at the corner of Esplanade and Mont-Royal (now home to contemporary dance ensemble Compagnie Marie Chouinard), the Adath Israel Academy in Outremont, and the home of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Westmount.
In the early 1930s, Mayerovitch travelled to Europe for the first time; the experience instilled in him a deep sense of social engagement and political awareness. Like many artists of his time, he was drawn to socialism. His Communist Party affinities led him to design propaganda posters, which garnered significant attention. He was soon recruited by the National Film Board (NFB), and appointed Director of its Wartime Information Board (1940).
During the Second World War, Mayerovitch designed numerous posters to promote the war effort and recruitment. In the following decades, he participated in an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which commemorated the national bicentenary of Canadian Jewry (1995) and, for Expo 67, he served as the theme committee’s chairman of the board.
In the 1950s, he drew a regular comic strip for the Westmount Examiner. He also wrote and illustrated a dozen books, including The Other One (1973), How Architecture Speaks and Fashions our Lives (1996) and Way to Go (2004).
