Christopher Pratt b. 1935

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 CAD

bidding is closed

Description

Christopher Pratt
The Sheep
signed, titled, dated Jan-March 1971 and inscribed Artist's Proof - 8 in the lower margin
silkscreen, edition of 25
34.3 by 78.7 cm.
13 5/8 by 31 in.

Provenance

Private Collection, Stratford

Catalogue Note

Pratt comments: I don't take to animals as subjects easily; any trace of anthropomorphism bothers me, and sheep come burdened with a load of symbolism that I wanted to avoid. But that isn't possible; I saw them as the embodiment of the landscape they inhabited, the burnished, windswept landscape that I love. The more I thought about it, the more I realized my images of animals were autobiographical. Technically, this was the most frustrating print I ever made. I abandoned it three times, each time tearing up the whole works and starting fresh: a total of six months, sixteen stencils and what seemed like a million dots! I was totally exhausted when it was done.

LITERATURE

Joyce Zemans, Christopher Pratt: A Retrospective, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, 1986, p. 69 for The Sheep reproduced.
Jay Scott and Christopher Pratt, The Prints of Christopher Pratt 1958-1991, catalogue raisonné, Breakwater Books with Mira Godard Gallery, 1991, p. 51 and 50 for The Sheep reproduced in colour.
Christpher Pratt (with an introduction by David P Silcox), Christopher Pratt: Personal Reflections of a Life in Art, Key Porter Books, Toronto, 1995, p. 69 for The Sheep reproduced in colour.