Mary Pratt (painter)
Mary Pratt | |
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Birth name | Mary Frances West |
Born |
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada | March 15, 1935
Nationality | Canadian |
Field | Painting |
Training | Mount Allison University |
Mary Frances Pratt, CC, RCA (née West) (born 15 March 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick) is a Canadian painter specializing in still life realist paintings.
She is the daughter of attorney William J. West, who served as the Minister of Justice of New Brunswick from 1952 to 1958 and Katherine West (née MacMurray), she has one sister, Barbara West Cross. She attended Mount Allison University, studying Fine Arts under Alex Colville, Ted Pulford, and Lawren P. Harris. She met the artist Christopher Pratt while they were both students there; they married in 1958, three years prior to her graduation with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1961. They moved to Newfoundland.[1] where, in 1964, they settled in St. Catherines, St. Mary's Bay, a small community south of St. John's. They have four children: John, Anne, Barbara, and Edwin. She and Christopher separated in 1990.
In 1996, she was named Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1997, she was awarded the Canadian Molson Prize from the Canada Council for $50 000.[2] In 2013, Pratt was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[3] Pratt has been awarded nine honourary degrees from various universities throughout Canada.[4]
Pratt's first solo exhibition was held at the Memorial University Art Gallery in St. John's in 1967. In 1995, the touring exhibition The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light was organized by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The accompanying catalogue won numerous awards and was included in Great Canadian Books of the Century.[5] Her most recent shows at commercial galleries include New Paintings and Works on Paper at the Mira Godard Gallery in Toronto, Canada (May/June 2012), and Inside Light at the Equinox Gallery in Vancouver, Canada (May/June 2011). The solo exhibition titled Mary Pratt is on tour throughout Canada from 2013 to 2015, and is organized by The Rooms and Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. It is curated by Mireille Eagan, Sarah Fillmore, and Caroline Stone. The accompanying catalogue is published by Goose Lane Editions.[6]
In 2007, Canada Post issued stamps in its "Art Canada" series in honour of Mary Pratt.[7] The $0.52 (domestic rate) stamp featured her Jelly Shelf (1999). The souvenir sheet included the $0.52 stamp, as well as a $1.55 (international rate) stamp with her Iceberg in the North Atlantic (1991).
Since the 1980s, Pratt has given addresses and published essays in periodicals such as The Globe and Mail and Glass Gazette. Her paintings have been exhibited in most major galleries in Canada, reproduced in magazines such as Saturday Night, Chatelaine, and Canadian Art. Her work is found in many prominent public, corporate, and private collections, including those of the National Gallery of Canada, The Rooms, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Museum, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Canada House in England.[5]
Pratt served on the government Task Force for Education in Newfoundland in 1973, on the Fishery Industry Advisory Board from 1978 to 1979, and on the Board of Management of the Grace General Hospital in St. John's. She has also served on the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee, which produced the Applebaum-Herbert Report in 1981. Pratt chaired a committee to advise on the creation of the School of Fine Arts at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook, Newfoundland in 1985. Pratt has held numerous other positions, including a seat on the Canada Council from 1987 to 1993, and on the Board of Regents of Mount Allison University from 1983 to 1991.[4]
Mary Pratt lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland where she continues to paint and write.
Examples of Work
Mary Pratt's works include:
- The Back Porch (1966)
- Caplin (1969)
- Eviscerated Chickens (1971)
- Red Currant Jelly (1972)
- Amaryllis (1975)
References
- ↑ CBC.ca - Life and Times
- ↑ Canadacouncil.ca
- ↑ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://web.ncf.ca/an650/teach99/wrt/nfld/mpratt.htm
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Smart, Tom. The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light. Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1995.
- ↑ http://www.therooms.ca/mary_pratt.asp
- ↑ Canadapost.ca
External links
- Review of Mary Pratt exhibition in Globe & Mail
- Canadian Art Magazine - online slideshow of Mary Pratt images
- ngcmagazine.ca article on Mary Pratt
- Pratt's work at the National Gallery of Canada
- Pratt's work at The Rooms (formerly Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador)
- Mary Pratt at The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Mary Pratt at Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto.
- Mary Pratt on Trinity Galleries
- Library and Archives Canada: Celebrating Women's Achievements
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