Christopher Pratt

{{Short description|Canadian painter and printmaker (1935–2022)}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Christopher Pratt

| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CC|ONL|size=100%}}

| image = CPratt with Argentia Painting photo- Ned Pratt.jpg

| alt = Portrait photo of artist Christopher Pratt standing with his arms folded in front of a his painting of the interior of a ruined building at Fort McAndrew, an abandoned American military base in Newfoundland.

| alias =

| caption = Christopher Pratt in front of "Argentia Interior: The Ruins of Fort McAndrew" in a photo by Ned Pratt

| birth_name = John Christopher Pratt

| birth_date = {{birth date|1935|12|09}}

| birth_place = St. John's, Newfoundland

| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|06|05|1935|12|09}}

| death_place = Salmonier, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

| nationality =

| known_for = Painter, printmaker

| training = Mount Allison University, Glasgow School of Art

| movement =

| notable_works =

| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Mary Pratt|1957|2004|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|Jeanette Meehan|2007|2016|end=divorced }}}}

| children = 4; including Barbara and Ned

}}

John Christopher Pratt {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CC|ONL|RCA|size=100%}} (December 9, 1935 – June 5, 2022){{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/christopher-pratt-newfoundland-painter-obituary-1.6319009|title=Christopher Pratt, legendary Canadian painter, dead at 86|first=Lindsay|last=Bird|publisher=CBC News|date=June 5, 2022|access-date=August 13, 2022}} was one of Canada's most prominent painters and printmakers.[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-christopher-pratt/ "John Christopher Pratt"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221121519/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-christopher-pratt |date=December 21, 2018 }}. The Canadian Encyclopedia, April 8, 2009. In addition to a body of highly acclaimed paintings, prints, drawings and writing, he designed the flag of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Early life and education

Pratt was born in St. John's, Newfoundland,{{cite web|title=Christopher Pratt|url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/arts/christopher-pratt.php|date=July 2013|access-date=June 7, 2022|work=Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage|publisher=Memorial University}} on December 9, 1935.{{cite book|title=Art and Rivalry: The Marriage of Mary and Christopher Pratt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDqLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT23|publisher=Knopf Canada|date=October 8, 2019|last=Bishop-Gwyn|first=Carol|isbn=9780345808448}} He first started painting watercolours in 1952 and won the provincial government's Arts and Letters Competition for his piece titled Shed in a Storm. He initially studied pre-engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland in the autumn of 1952 before relocating to New Brunswick the following year to study pre-medicine at Mount Allison University. However, he quickly became interested in Fine Arts, especially painting. He was encouraged to paint by Lawren P. Harris and Alex Colville.

From 1957 to 1959, Pratt studied at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeflDQAAQBAJ&q=chritopher+Pratt+studied+at+the+Glasgow+School+of+Art+in+Scotland.&pg=PA2334|title=Creative Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-century Creative and Performing Artists (Volume 1)|date=December 15, 1971|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9781442637832|via=Google Books}} During the summers, he returned to Newfoundland to work as a construction surveyor at the American Naval Base at Argentia. The training he received in precise measuring was applied to his paintings. In 1959 Pratt returned to Mount Allison University to complete in 1961 a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. During this period he began to make silkscreen prints. The early screen print Boat in Sand, 1961 in the National Gallery's collection was produced at this time and included in the Gallery's fourth Biennial Exhibition.{{cite web|url=http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=4433|publisher=National Gallery of Canada|title=Christopher Pratt|accessdate=April 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118195805/http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=4433|archive-date=January 18, 2012|url-status=live}} The praise it received from the biennial jury launched Pratt's career.{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Joan |title=Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century |date=1999 |publisher=Dundurn Press |location=Toronto |pages=186–187|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/amurray%2C+joan/amurray+joan/1%2C1%2C152%2CB/frameset&FF=amurray+joan+1943&30%2C%2C152 |access-date=June 5, 2022}}

Career

File:Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador.svg, designed by Pratt and adopted in 1980]]

Pratt's subjects included landscapes, architecture, and occasionally figure work.

I have a profound sense of the power of ordinariness, and of ordinary things ... I mean ordinary in the sense that this is a person, place or thing that has nothing going for it but the fact of its own existence, the fact that it is....

In making prints, Pratt worked from studies to the silkscreen, using abstracted collages.{{cite book |last1=Zemans |first1=Joyce |title=Christopher Pratt: A Retrospective |date=1985 |publisher=Vancouver Art Gallery |location=Vancouver|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/azemans/azemans/1%2C1%2C13%2CB/frameset&FF=azemans+joyce+1940&3%2C%2C13 |access-date=November 4, 2021}}

In 1961, Pratt accepted the position of curator at the newly opened Memorial University Art Gallery in St. John's. He remained at the gallery for two and a half years before deciding to concentrate on his painting full-time, moving his family to Salmonier, Newfoundland.{{cite web |url= http://www.heritage.nf.ca/arts/agnl/cpratt.html |agency= AGNL |publisher= heritage.nf.ca |title= Christopher Pratt |access-date= March 19, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090307232424/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/arts/agnl/cpratt.html |archive-date= March 7, 2009 |url-status= live }}

His work was the subject of a major touring retrospective organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1985, a touring print retrospective and catalogue raisonné, The Prints of Christopher Pratt: 1958-1991 in 1992, a major traveling retrospective exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Canada in 2005,{{cite web |title=Christopher Pratt: Six Decades |url=https://www.fireflybooks.com/catalogue/adult-books/arts-photography/product/10878-christopher-pratt-six-decades |website=www.fireflybooks.com |publisher=Firefly Books |access-date=November 11, 2021}}{{cite web|title=Mira Godard Gallery Artists: Christopher Pratt|url=http://www.godardgallery.com/cpratt.htm|publisher=Mira Godard Gallery|accessdate=April 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208064806/http://www.godardgallery.com/cpratt.htm|archive-date=February 8, 2012|url-status=live}} and a ten-year retrospective of his work at The Rooms in 2015.{{cite web|url=https://www.therooms.ca/exhibits/past-exhibit/christopher-pratt-the-places-i-go|title=Christopher Pratt: The Places I Go - The Rooms|publisher=|access-date=November 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103215848/https://www.therooms.ca/exhibits/past-exhibit/christopher-pratt-the-places-i-go|archive-date=November 3, 2016|url-status=dead}}

Pratt's work was also exhibited extensively outside Canada. The Mira Godard Gallery, in association with the Marlborough Gallery, exhibited his work in New York in 1976. In 1982, Mira Godard Gallery and the Canada House Cultural Centre Gallery in London, England, organized a show of Pratt's paintings, prints and drawings; the show toured Paris, Brussels and Dublin. A collection of Pratt's silkscreen prints, created between 1960 and 1982, traveled to Rome, Glasgow, Berkshire, Dublin and Vienna (1983 - 1985) and, in 1986, several of Pratt's prints were featured by the American Associated Artists Gallery in New York. Two years later, a number of Pratt's paintings were exhibited at the 49th Parallel Gallery in New York.{{Cite web | title=Christopher Pratt - Drawing From Memory | url=https://exhibits.therooms.ca/ic_sites/pratt/life/bio_3.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812000034/https://exhibits.therooms.ca/ic_sites/pratt/life/bio_3.htm | access-date=2025-04-05 | archive-date=2023-08-12}}

Pratt served on the Canadian government's Stamp Design Advisory Committee from 1972 to 1975 and on the board of the Canada Council for the Arts from 1975 to 1981. In 1980, at the request of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Pratt designed the Provincial Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador. His work is found in the public collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa,{{Cite web|url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/christopher-pratt|title=Christopher Pratt|website=www.gallery.ca}} the Vancouver Art Gallery,{{Cite web|url=https://www.straight.com/arts/vancouver-art-gallerys-lights-out-paints-1960s-canada|title=Vancouver Art Gallery's Lights Out! paints 1960s Canada|date=March 13, 2012|website=The Georgia Straight}} The Rooms, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.{{cite news|title=Christopher Pratt, prominent Canadian painter and printmaker, dies at 86|url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/christopher-pratt-prominent-canadian-painter-and-printmaker-dies-at-86-1.5933752|first=Sadaf|last=Ahsan|date=June 5, 2022|access-date=June 7, 2022|publisher=CTV News|agency=The Canadian Press}}{{cite web|title=Christopher Pratt|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/christopher-pratt/|access-date=June 7, 2022|website=Artnet}}

Personal life

Pratt met artist Mary West at Mount Allison University.{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/pratt.html |publisher=cbc.ca |title=Life and Times |access-date=March 19, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080207035027/http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/pratt.html |archive-date=February 7, 2008 |url-status=live }} They married in 1957 and had five children: John, Anne, Barbara, Ned, and David, who died in infancy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-east-coast-painter-mary-pratt-found-little-truths-in-everyday/|title=East Coast painter Mary Pratt found 'little truths' in everyday objects|via=The Globe and Mail}} The couple divorced in 2004. He later married Jeanette Meehan, who was his studio assistant, in 2007; they divorced in 2016.{{cite news|title=Artistic Marriage Licence|url=https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2020/01/artistic-marriage-licence/|first=John|last=Lownsbrough|date=January–February 2020|access-date=June 7, 2022|magazine=Literary Review of Canada}}

Pratt lived and worked in the community of St. Catherine's, in a region often referred to simply as Salmonier, Mount Carmel at the head of St. Mary's Bay, from 1963 until his death.Streets of Toronto, [https://streetsoftoronto.com/yorkville-gallery-to-open-exhibition-of-christopher-pratt-paintings-this-month/ 'Yorkville gallery to open exhibition of Christopher Pratt paintings this month'], September 7, 2017. Accessed June 5, 2022. He died on the morning of June 5, 2022, at his home on the bank of the Salmonier River. He was 86 years old.

Works

Boat in Sand (1961){{Cite web|url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/boat-in-sand|title=Boat in Sand|website=www.gallery.ca}}
Good Friday (1973){{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMqfAAAAMAAJ&q=christopher+pratt+good+friday|title=Vernissage: The Magazine of the National Gallery of Canada|date=May 18, 2003|publisher=National Gallery of Canada|via=Google Books}}
March Night (1976){{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/desolation-with-a-hint-of-the-uncanny/article1323088/|title=Desolation, with a hint of the uncanny|via=The Globe and Mail}}
March Crossing (1977){{Cite web|url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/march-crossing|title=March Crossing|website=www.gallery.ca}}
Benoit's Cove: Sheds in Winter (1998){{Cite web|url=https://www.exhibits.therooms.ca/ic_sites/pratt/art/subjects.htm|title=Christopher Pratt - Drawing From Memory|website=www.exhibits.therooms.ca}}

Awards and honours

Pratt became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (ARCA) and a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art in 1965, at the age of 30.{{cite web|title=Members since 1880 |url=http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |publisher=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |accessdate=September 11, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526215339/http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |archivedate=May 26, 2011 }} Eight years later, he was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada, before becoming a companion of the Order in 1983.{{cite web|title=Mr. J. Christopher Pratt|url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-13463|access-date=June 7, 2022|publisher=The Governor General of Canada}} He was awarded the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2018.{{cite news|title=Christopher Pratt, Kaetlyn Osmond to receive order of Newfoundland and Labrador|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/order-of-nl-1.4962115|date=December 31, 2018|access-date=June 7, 2022|publisher=CBC News}}

Pratt was awarded an honorary doctorate by Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1972.{{cite web|url=https://gazette.mun.ca/campus-and-community/expression-of-sympathy/|title=Expression of sympathy|work=Memorial University Gazette|publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland|first=Vianne|last=Timmons|author-link=Vianne Timmons|date=June 7, 2022|access-date=June 9, 2022}}

In 2018, Pratt was the subject of Kenneth J. Harvey's documentary film Immaculate Memories: The Uncluttered Worlds of Christopher Pratt.{{cite news|title=New documentary explores the order and disorder of N.L. painter Christopher Pratt|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/christopher-pratt-absolutely-canadian-1.4803168|first=Sarah|last=Smellie|date=August 30, 2018|access-date=June 7, 2022|publisher=CBC News|agency=The Canadian Press}}