Bruce Turner was the son of a baker. He lived in Leeds and attended the Leeds School of Art graduating in 1911. He was a member of the progressive artists’ circle of the Leeds Art Club, as well as of the “Cafe Royale Circle” of the writer Alfred Orage. Turner was strongly influenced by the abstraction of Vorticism and Futurism. Perhaps his best-known work was a 1910s painting of the Russian dancer Anna Pavlova, who had performed in Leeds at the time. The painting is considered the earliest Futurist-influenced painting in Britain. After World War I, Turner lived a very secluded life and rarely exhibited his works. For conscientious objection, he had to serve a prison sentence in the notorious Dartmoor Prison, from which he never fully recovered. Much of his work has been lost.
Great Britain