Biography

Brandt was a painter, designer, illustrator and teacher. Although born in Hamburg, Brandt was British. He was the younger brother of photographer Bill Brandt. Rolf was a professional actor who in the 1920s became interested in Dada and Surrealism, which remained a potent influence on the work of both Brandts. He lived permanently in England from the early 1930s and as well as studying art in Paris, attended Amédéé Ozenfant’s London school. Showed with London Group, Arts Council, Artists’ International Association and had several one-man shows in England and Italy, one at Paris Gallery, London, 1961; another at ICA, 1965; and he shared an exhibition with Timothy Driver at Lisson Gallery, 1970. He taught for some years at London College of Printing and Byam Shaw School of Art. England & Co held a retrospective in 2004, which coincided with a major exhibition of Bill Brandt work, ‘Other Sides of Bill Brandt’, at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It included an album of collages and drawings by Rolf Brandt from its collection.