As part of the Armistice18 ceremonies there is a display of work by one of Canada’s leading contemporary artist, Charles Pachter in the Art Gallery of Northumberland in Victoria Hall in Cobourg.
Pachter is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, historian and lecturer. Born in Toronto in 1942, he studied art history at the University of Toronto, French literature at the Sorbonne, and painting and graphics at t he Cranbrook Academy of Art in michigan.
His work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the McMichael Gallery.
Pachter is represented in public and private collections throughout Canada and internationally. He has held solo exhibitions in France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., India and Bangladesh.
Pachter worked at Expo 67 in Montreal supervising the installation of 60 contemporary sculptures from around the world. He taught printmaking at the University of Calgary in 1969-70. He spearheaded Toronto’s Queen Street West revival in the 1970’s and 80’s by restoring 20 old buildings into facilities for arts usage.
He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters, a member of the Order of Ontario and holds honorary doctorates from Brock University, OCAD University and the University of Toronto. He is a recipient of the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals.
His images of the Queen, moose, and the Maple Leaf flag are icons of Canadian contemporary art. McClelland & Stewart has published an illustrated book on his life and work (1992), and Cormorant Books has published The Illustrated Journals of Susanna Moodie, his celebrated collaboration with poet Margaret Atwood (2014).
His murals of Hockey Knights In Canada, Les Rois del’Arene can be seen in Toronto’s College Subway Station.
Pachter lives and works in downtown Toronto in an award-winning studio designed by Canadian architect Stephen Teeple. His work is on permanent display in his adjoining Moose Factory Gallery. His works are also displayed in MOFO – Moose Factory of Orillia – a former car repair garage he renovated in the heart of this historic Ontario town.
His paintings are in the are in the Portrait Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, Canada House in London, the Parliament Buildings, the Prime Minister’s residence, and the Embassy of France in Ottawa. Pachter’s steel and granite moose sculptures have been installed across Canada.
His best selling children’s books, M is for Moose, and Canada Counts are published by Cormorant Books, Toronto.
A new biography by Leonard Wise, Charles Pachter: Canada’s Artist was published by Dundurn Press in 2017.