Horace Ascher Brodzky was born in Kew, Melbourne, in 1885, the son of the Australian journalist Maurice Brodzky and his wife Flora. He studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne and, after a period in San Francisco and New York, settled in London in 1908, where he continued his training at the City and Guilds South London Technical Art School. In London he became part of a lively avant-garde circle, moving among Walter Sickert, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Mark Gertler and the Vorticists, developing a distinctive body of work in paintings, drawings and prints.
Horace Brodzky was an early pioneer of linocut, a medium in which he helped open up new possibilities for modern printmaking in Britain. He travelled to Italy with the poet John Gould Fletcher, and a work from that journey was selected for the 1912 Venice Biennale, making him the first Australian to be shown there. After moving to New York in 1915, he worked as a poster artist, arts journalist and designer of book jackets for writers including Eugene O’Neill and Theodore Dreiser, while continuing to paint and make prints.
Returning to London in 1923, Brodzky settled in Kilburn and Willesden, where he remained a lively and engaged figure within the artistic community. He supported himself through teaching, stage-design and, from 1948 to 1962, as art editor of the Antique Dealer and Collector’s Guide. In later years, he turned his attention to writing, producing thoughtful biographies of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Jules Pascin. Since his death in 1969, Brodzky’s work has enjoyed a growing appreciation, celebrated for its vitality, invention and enduring contribution to the story of modern British printmaking.
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