Prominent contemporary Canadian artist Charles Pachter invites members into his studio and gallery for an intimate guided tour and rooftop reception.

Members will recognize Pachter’s work from their walk up the spiral staircase in the clubhouse, where one of Pachter’s Painted Flags is currently on view.

About The Painted Flags

In the summer of 1979 at his farm in Oro-Medonte Charles constructed a flimsy home-made flag pole out of two-by-fours hastily nailed together to which he attached a small rayon flag that he had purchased at a Canadian Tire store in Orillia. He maneuvered the unwieldy mast into a fence post hole, lay down in a hammock to survey his handiwork, and watched the flag undulate and unfurl slowly in the breeze, rocking back and forth like a primitive mobile at the top of its slender stem. The effect of wind, light and motion struck him immediately.

Back in Toronto he started painting flags at his studio.

Swept along by the compositional variations based on the effect of light and motion, he eventually completed 30 paintings, and began to prepare for an exhibition of these new works. He was in the midst of renovating a former IGA supermarket on the main floor of a building at 567 Queen Street West across the street from his Gracie’s Restaurant.

It was the most ambitious project he had undertaken to date. He transformed the former supermarket into the largest, most glamorous and best equipped private gallery in Toronto. Rivalling anything in Soho in New York, it boasted a computerized lighting system, 16-foot-high walls, and state-of-the-art loading and storage systems.

“The Painted Flag” Exhibition opened on November 7, 1981 the day after Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had announced that the constitution was being patriated to Canada. It was a grand coincidence. With the élite of the Toronto art world in attendance, the champagne flowed. The canvases were splendidly mounted and lit in the gleaming new gallery that looked as mystical as a Ming tomb.

Queen Street had come of age. The Toronto Star’s Lisa Bowen on November 14, 1981 stated “there is excitement, colour and texture in this astonishing show”.

THE PAINTED FLAGS have become among Pachter’s best-known and most loved images. They hang in Canadian embassies around the world, and in major corporate and private collections.

About Charles Pachter

Charles Pachter is a much-admired Canadian artistic polymath, his colourful work merging playful even irreverent elements with deeply iconic imagery. A painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer and author, Pachter is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Sorbonne-Paris. He is an Officer of the prestigious Order of Canada, a Chevalier of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and twice a recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee medal. He has honorary doctorate degrees from the Ontario College of Art & Design, the University of Toronto and Brock University. His paintings are in public and private collections around the world.

https://cpachter.com