Lot 124
CHARLES PACHTER
Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto.
Literature:
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Charles Pachter, Toronto, 1992, pages 71,
84, 86-87 and colour plates 88-91 for other works from the artist’s “The Painted Flag” series.
Note:
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov discusses the Toronto artist’s beginnings in depicting Canada’s flag and the comparison of Pachter’s “The Painted Flag” series to the depictions of the American flag by contemporary American artist, Jasper Johns: “In June of 1980, Pachter began a series of paintings which later eclipsed his streetcar and queen on moose themes in capturing the public imagination. After building an improvised flagpole on his Oro farm, he observed the different configurations produced by the rippling flag in rapid succession. He photographed hundreds of variations for later reference. This approach was different from that of American artist Jasper Johns, whose unmodulated grid-like studies of the American flag were seen less as patriotic symbols than as points of departure for formal abstractions. In contrast, Pachter painted the Canadian flag hovering in the air, observed from various angles and distances with emphasis on light and shadow.
In variations on this theme, Pachter alternated the scale of the flag to pole, or abandoned the pole altogether. He also introduced different background shades of blue and improbable hues such as black and pink, suffusing “The Painted Flags” with an aura that extended far beyond the moment captured.”