Charles Pachter Artist
Charles Pachter (born December 30, 1942 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian contemporary artist. He is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, historian, and lecturer. He studied French literature at the Sorbonne, art history at the University of Toronto, and painting and graphics at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.His work has been shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the McMichael Canadiana Gallery. His mural, Hockey Knights in Canada, Les Rois de l'Arène, can be seen at Toronto's College subway station, where the Montréal Canadiens face the Toronto Maple Leafs across the tracks. He holds honorary doctorates from Brock University, the Ontario College of Art & Design., and the University of Toronto. He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999, and promoted to Officer in 2011.His images of the Queen of Canada, moose, and maple leaf flag are pop icons of Canadian contemporary art. McClelland & Stewart publications include an illustrated monograph on his life and work, and The Journals of Susanna Moodie, his celebrated collaboration with poet Margaret Atwood. He has lectured extensively on the legacy of the Loyalists, John Graves Simcoe'>John Graves Simcoe and the kickstarting of English Canada following the American Revolution.Mr. Pachter lives and works beside Grange Park in an award-winning residence and studio designed by Canadian architect Stephen Teeple. His work is on permanent display in his adjoining Moose Factory gallery. His work has influenced a generation of young Canadian artists, including the sculptor Harley Valentine.In summer, he paints in a waterfront studio converted from an ice storage depot on Lake Simcoe.His 1980 portrait of Margaret Atwood is in the collection of the Portrait Gallery of Canada. His flag paintings hang in the Prime Minister’s residence in Ottawa, in the Canadian Embassy in Washington, in the Parliament Buildings and in the Embassy of France in Ottawa. Pachter’s steel and granite moose sculptures have been installed across Canada. His children’s books, M is for Moose and Canada Counts are published by Cormorant Brooks.
