CH R O N O L O G Y
1 9 4 2
Dec 30, born in downtown Toronto at 499 Palmerston Boulevard, the second of four children. Father Harry born in Toronto 1914,d. 1998 and mother Sara (Sanders) born in Edmonton, 1915, d. 2007
1 9 4 6 – 5 0
Family moves uptown to mostly Anglican neighbourhood of 84 Chudleigh Avenue. Attends John Ross Robertson public school Spends summers at various rented cottages around south Lake Simcoe.
1 9 4 7
Stars in a National Film Board short documentary Johnny at the Fair about the Canadian National Exhibition. Meets prime minister Mackenzie King, gets kissed by skater Barbara Ann Scott, pets a moose.
1 9 5 0 – 5 5
Family moves to middle class neighbourhood at 83 Ava Road .Attends Holy Blossom Temple Sunday school and John R. Wilcox public school. Studies piano with Rachel Cavalho, painting with Ronald
1 9 5 5 – 6 0
Attends Vaughan Road Collegiate. Takes academic art course under Miss Hudgins. Gets D minus and a scolding for painting daffodils blue.
1 9 5 7
Paints large mural on his bedroom wall based on the Canadian rural landscape on the $2 bill.
1 9 5 8
Dr. Verna Curran encourages his French studies. Goes on a Visite Interprovinciale exchange program hosted by a Catholic family in east Montreal. Tours Quebec city in a horse-drawn calèche. Paints sets for musical shows at Camp Katonim, Lake Simcoe. Discovers the unused attic of the family house on Ava Road, creates a private work space called “The Pad” where he paints for two years.
1 9 5 9
Attends Saturday morning classes “for gifted adolescents” at the Art Gallery of Toronto, supervised by William Withrow. Chosen Simpson’s representative for Vaughan Road Collegiate. Paints a wall mural of a prairie road for the Home Furnishings department, models as a hockey player for Simpson’s Catalogue.
1 9 5 9 – 6 4
Summers, works at Camp White Pine, Haliburton, Ontario. Teaches arts and crafts, drama, and creates special event programming. Meets and befriends Margaret Atwood, known as “Peggy Nature”.
1 9 6 0 – 6 2
Heads the arts and crafts department at Holy Blossom religious school.
Enrols in Art and Archeology at the University of Toronto, taught by Steven Vickers, Robert Welsh, Scott Symons, Ted Bieler.
Fellow classmates include Bogomila Ovcharov and Douglas Richardson.
1 9 6 1
Takes night courses in silkscreening under Fred Hagan at Ontario College of Art. Sketches with Ed Roman in the Rouge River Valley. Makes watercolours and oils of Ontario ravine landscapes.
1 9 6 2 – 3
Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, travels around France, Spain, Italy, and Corsica. Makes figure drawings and watercolours at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, streetscapes in and around Paris.
1 9 6 3 – 4
Returns to Canada, completes BA at University of Toronto. Visits Chicago, houses of Frank Lloyd Wright. Makes silkscreens at Camp White Pine and in studio in Mirvish Village on Markham Street.
1 9 6 4
Makes large oil paintings of Toronto houses, Grandmother’s House
1 9 6 4
February – First solo show of serigraphs at Pollock Gallery on Markham Street. Birds in Flight, Family, St. Lawrence Market
1 9 6 4 – 6 6
Attends Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art. Studies papermaking, lithography, etching, painting, design. Corresponds with Margaret Atwood studying at Harvard. Prints five Limited Edition illustrated folios of her poetry.
Paints first satirical work, The Hiya Dolls. Visits Mexico, Cuernavaca, Tepotzlan.
1 9 6 6
Graduates with an MFA from Cranbrook, returns to Toronto.
Rents a former bicycle repair shop at 907 Shaw Street.
Buys an old lithography press from Tom Lapierre, sets up a printing studio.
Prints lithographs, The Winner, Funny What Love Can Do, Golem, Conflux.
Acquires fonts of old foundry type.
Makes handmade book of lithographs Notebook Pages illustrating the poems of John Newlove.
Joins Quadrat society of private press printers at Massey College.
1 9 6 7
Moves to Montreal. Works in the theme division of Expo 67, installs sculptures for the Exposition Internationale. Meets Alexander Calder, prints lithographs in the Atelier GRAFF of Pierre Ayot, Rue Rachel,
Masque, Body Politic.
Musée d’Art Contemporain buys first Atwood-Pachter portfolio,The Circle Game, 1964.
1 9 6 7 – 6 8
Returns to Toronto. Buys first house at 1232 Shaw Street. Builds a print atelier in the basement. Makes lithographs It’s Just a Flesh Wound, Invocation, Is the Pope Catholic?, handmade book of poems by Alden Nowlan, A Black Plastic Button and a Yellow Yoyo. March, exhibits lithographs at Gallery Pascal, 104 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto.
1 9 6 8
Returns to France, visits Greek Islands.
1 9 6 9 – 7 0
Invited by Dean Richard Johnston to teach at the University of Calgary. Drives across Canada in an Envoy Epic. Lives in a small frame house on 21st Avenue South West. Makes silkscreens Elegy for Bluebeard, Lookout, lithographs Model Modern Message, She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain, Happy Trails to You, O Bury Me Not, Beatific Revelation, Plunge, Deluge. Works with John K. Esler, Antony Benjamin, Alexandra Haeseker.
February, exhibits new graphics at Canadian Art Galleries, Calgary.
1 9 7 0
April, returns to Toronto. Begins first renovation project, guts and rebuilds house and studio at 1232 Shaw Street. October, second exhibition of graphics at Gallery Pascal.
1 9 7 1
Makes several editions of Streetcar serigraphs in the studio at 1232 Shaw Street. December, tours the middle east, returns to Canada, flies to Cape Dorset, North West Territories to teach lithography to the Inuit. Takes ill with pneumonia and pleurisy, is flown south.
1 9 7 2
January-February, recuperates at Toronto Western Hospital.
April, large solo exhibition of Streetcar serigraphs, collages and constructions at Isaacs Gallery.
Sets type, makes lithographic collages and drawings for Dennis Lee’s book of children’s poems, Wiiggle To The Laundromat.
Participates in AGO Artists Protest with Joyce Wieland and Michael Snow.
July Visits the Gaspé coast for an eclipse of the sun.
Returns to Toronto, begins series of paintings exploring the monarchy in Canada. Procession through Landscape, Noblesse Oblige, The Visitation, Double Bubble, Rite de Passage, Clair de Lune, The Curtsey Triptych, Snow Queen.
Isaacs Gallery decides not to show the Queen on Moose paintings.
1 9 7 3
June, creates the first of many Toronto “event” opening parties, The Other Shaw Festival, for the exhibition of new paintings, Monarchs of the North at 1232 Shaw Street, which coincides with the Queen’s visit to the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake. Buys old factory at 24 Ryerson Avenue near Queen and Bathurst Streets.
Continues painting and printing landscapes, moose, rocks, goats, Canadian Tire collages. Flight of The Toaster, Mooseponder, Lakemark.
1 9 7 4
August, moves to 24 Ryerson Avenue.
Starts Artists Alliance Building Limited. Renovates factory, rents out studio and living space to other artists including Gary Greenwood, Jiri Ladocha, Anton Cetin, Janet Hunter, David Pellettier.
Starts artists’ co-op gallery called Artery. Moves to top floor loft where he lives and works for 2 years. Helps director Paul Thompson purchase derelict factory next door for Theatre Passe Muraille.
Buys and renovates neighbouring warehouse buildings as extensions of Artists Alliance. October, holds huge event party to mark the opening of Artery. Coincides with opening party of Stage II, new wing of Art Gallery of Ontario.
1 9 7 5
February, exhibits LANDMARKS at Artery, paintings, Look Out Barbara Ann, Kippawa, prints and collages, Mooseponder, Bear in Mind The Light, Moosamour.
Conceives 2 notorious performance art group shows about taste, The Ugly Show, and The Stunning Show.
1 9 7 6
Moves to large Edwardian house at 350 Markham Street. Retains working studio at 24 Ryerson, forms renovation business with 2 partners. Paints large work Life is Not a Fountain, silkscreens Mooseplunge. Joins Artists With their Work program at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Lectures and shows in Kingston, Ottawa, Owen Sound, Simcoe, Hamilton, Sudbury.
June, buys old 100 acre farm and house in Oro township near Orillia. House of Anansi Press publishes The Queen of Canada Colouring Book with Pachter drawings.
1 9 7 7
August, purchases abandoned grocery store and blacksmith’s shop at 2 Grange Place, leaves 350 Markham Street. Begins renovating 2 Grange Place into a permanent home and studio.
October, COLLINS PACHTER TINKL exhibition opens at AGO.
1 9 7 8
Begins ink and dry brush portraits of friends, Figures in a Landscape paintings from Oro, Lake Simcoe. Visits Paris for Michael Snow exhibition at the Pompidou Centre. Draws David Earle, Peter Randazzo, Joyce Wieland, Catherine Williams, John Hirsch, Peter Newman, Rick Salutin, Susan Swan, Margaret Atwood, Peter Newman, Louis de Niverville.
åRenovates coach house at 118 Baldwin St, 78 Sullivan Street for Lester Orpen Dennys.
1 9 7 9
With partners John Stewart and John Eckler renovates old fur factory at Queen and Soho Streets into a new gallery, The Soho Loft. October, Figures in a Landscape Exhibition, Soho Loft Gallery, 367 Queen Street West. Six Figures in a Landscape, Self portrait on Couch, A Pause on the French River, Convertible in a Landscape, Monika at Oro, Alix Arnett, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Wendy Weaver.
1 9 8 0
Purchases Remeny House of Music Building at 553 Queen Street West, opens permanent gallery, hires director Judith Saunders. Resumes work on Margaret Atwood’s epic poem, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, folio first drafted in 1969. Hires Spanish master printers Manuel and Abel Bello Sanchez to print the serigraphs and poems. With 10 partners renovates a clothing store at 508 Queen St West into 180 seat restaurant and artists’ café called Gracie’s.
October, exhibits The Journals of Susanna Moodie and New Portraits at Ring gallery, 553 Queen Street West.
Begins reconstruction of former IGA supermarket and bulding at 567 Queen Street West.
November, Gracie’s Restaurant opens with gala party. Butter tarts from Wilkie’s bakery bussed in from Orillia.
1 9 8 1
Invited to exhibit in Artists in Books, at the National Library, Ottawa.
June, starts series of large Flag paintings. November, gala opening of the exhibition The Painted Flag in new galleries renovated from an old IGA supermarket. Exhibition coincides with patriation of the Constitution.
1 9 8 2
Recession. Gracie’s closes. IGA gallery closes. All real estate holdings sold except house and studio at 2 Grange Place. Artists Alliance closes. Business partnerships end. Invited to show in Post – Pop Realism, The Winnpeg Perspective, Winnipeg Art Gallery
1 9 8 3
Three large flag paintings acquired by Olympia and York for Stock Exchange Tower, First Canadian Place, Toronto.
1 9 8 4
Sees exhibition The Mystic North at AGO. Makes paintings of loyalists, historical and contemporary figures and objects in “Group of Seven” derived landscape settings. Simcoe‘s Reward, Cold Comfort, Davenport and Bay, Lake, Couch, I-Ching, Queen‘s Rangers, Castle Frank in Winter
1 9 8 4
March-July, exhibits paintings and graphics at Movenpick Restaurant gallery.
July, The Journals of Susanna Moodie opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario. November, invited to show in the group exhibition Vestiges of Empire in London.
December, solo exhibition of new paintings, Waterworks, opens at Queens Quay Terminal, Toronto.
1 9 8 5
April-October, Regarding the Flag, exhibition of 20 flag paintings at the Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, celebrating the flag’s 20th anniversary.
September, exhibits Waterworks at The Arts and Letters Club, Toronto. Davenport and Bay, Queen and Bay, Mooseplunge, Susanna Moodie.
November, tours the Pacific Rim: Tokyo, Kyoto, Taiwan, Bankgok, Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong. Makes new paintings The Supremes, Float, Bare in Mind the Light, State of the Tarts, To All in Tents.
December, visits Caribbean island of Bequia in the Grenadines. Paints Gait, Arcade, Revelation.
Begins series of 50 line drawing portraits of prominent Canadians for City and Country Home magazine.
1 9 8 6
April, exhibits new paintings at Gallery Moos, Toronto. Rapprochement, The Supremes, Mooseplunge, Float, Discovery: The Canvas House, Sealed Off, Constitutional.
July, purchases and renovates derelict apartment building at 80 Beverley St, across from the Art Gallery of Ontario overlooking Grange Park.
1 9 8 7
January, exhibits new works at opening of the new Alliance Française. Tour de Force, To All in Tents, Une Demoiselle de Toronto, Oro Barn, Cipher.
February, documentary profile Pachter, made by Claude Grenier, National Film Board, Montreal. April, exhibits at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto. Writes series of articles on art and architecture for the Toronto Star.
1 9 8 8
Begins Amiga computer-generated sketches for paintings. Oro Barns, Red Barn Reflected. Starts a computer diary.
November, exhibits large paintings at La Citadelle, Montreal. State of the Tarts, A Cross The Lake, Ann at Oro, Moose Stall, Catherine Williams, Life is not a Fountain, To All in Tents, Noblesse Oblige.
1 9 8 9
February, creates 10th Anniversary Poster for the Genie Awards. Paints large acrylic portraits commissioned by Robert and Bogomila Welsh, Moses Znaimer and Marilyn Lightstone, Edward and Eva Borins, Pauline Elias. Paints Sir Who, Moose Lake, Flagspatter, Buy Lingual, Oro Window.
December, visits Greece: Delphi, Athens, Paros.
1 9 9 0
April, exhibits new works at Castle Hill. Ari Air View, Ordinary Canadians, The Once and Future King, The Rosedale Kiss, Night Ride, Black Lit Clark, Sealed Off, Round Square.
July, Paints outdoor mural Voice of Culture incorporating the Queen, a moose, and 3 Barnett Newman-inspired stripes into one composition for the exterior wall of Acme Bar and Grill, King and John Streets, Toronto.
August. Visits the south of France, is invited to mount a 3-month retrospective exhibition at the Centre d’Art Présence Van Gogh in Saint Rémy de Provence. September, paints 3 portraits of Pierre Trudeau, 2 portraits of Van Gogh as a young man. A la recherche du jeune Vincent, Vincent au lit.
November, Visits Key West, paints The Swingers.
1991
Solo exhibitions at The Summit, Canada Trust, Toronto, and Inniskillin Winery, Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario. October First European retrospective opens at St. Rémy de Provence, France.
1992
April, “Licht im Schatten” Pachter retrospective opens at the Haus an der Redoute gallery in Bonn, Germany.
1993
Buys and renovates art deco house in Miami Beach, spends 5 winters there painting and hosting Canadian guests.
July – Sept., Shows 6 paintings in Exhibition The Simcoes and the Founding of Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario.
1994
February – Sept. Charles Pachter’s Canada, retrospective exhibition opens at Royal Ontario Museum.
1995
June-Oct., In Pachter’s Orbit, CN Tower, Toronto, Toronto and Miami paintings.
1996
Sept-Oct, La Transhumance, Alliance Française, Toronto, exhibition of Florida paintings.
October, Receives honorary doctorate from Brock University
April Purchases abandoned warehouse in Chinatown, renovates it into Moose Factory Gallery and Event Centre.
1997
December, Opening of Moose Factory and Installation of “The Barns Exhibit” Mooseconstrue, Barn Again, Barn Free, Moosemerge, Moose Lunar, Skybarn, Barnstorm, Car Barn, Moose Demeanour
1998
June -Oct, Pachter Portraits exhibition at the University of Toronto Art Centre .
Invents art critic “Don Rouge-Humber “ to wax lyrical over his new work.
Visits Newfoundland, Paints Ark, Inner Harbour
1999
Installs 9-ft high commissioned steel moose on beach site overlooking Lake of Bays
Visits Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Paints Moose Spectre
2000
Named a member of the Order of Canada
Installation of Pachter Graphics at Design Exchange, Toronto
Creates Mooseplunge sculpture for Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto
Donates Moosedemeanour 2 ton steel sculpture to Graduate House, University of Toronto
2001
Apr Retrospective Exhibition, “Mind’s Eye”, opens at Canadian Embassy, Tokyo
August – Artist in Residence at Le Symposium International de la Peinture Contemporaine in Baie Saint Paul, Quebec
Oct Donates Mooseconstrue , steel sculpture to University of Toronto, installed on grassy knoll at Harbord & St George St.
2002
Oct Donates To All in Tents to International Jewish Memorial Centre in Shanghai
Nov Named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France
2003
July Purchases former Ice Storage Depot on Lake SImcoe waterfront, converts it to summer residence and studio.
2005
Feb-Mar Visits India
November Completion of Pachter Hall and the new Moose Factory at 22 Grange Ave.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA New Paintings – Nov 05 – June 06
2006
March Installation of MOOSEDEMEANOUR sculpture at University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa
July-Aug REGARDING THE LAKE New paintings and Graphics, Orillia Museum of Art & History
2007
January Exhibits New Works
GLIMPSES OF INDIA
Canadian High Commision, Delhi
DES REGARDS SUR L’INDE
Alliance Française, Delhi
DUCKS REDUX, July-August
The Ice House, Lake Simcoe
CHARLES PACHTER’S CANADA (II),
Royal Ontario Museum, Oct 07-Feb 08
2008
Sept, “M is for Moose”, children’s book published by Cormorant Books
2009
May-June Mythologies, Paintings 1964-2008, Elmwood Spa, Toronto
June Honorary Doctorate, OCAD University
CANADA COUNTS children’s book published by Cormorant Books
2010
Feb, Solo Olympics Exhibition Whistler, BC
June, Honorary Doctorate, University of Toronto
2011 Promoted to Officer in the Order of Canada
2012 Recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal
2010
MOUNTAIN GALLERIES, Whistler BC, Feb -Mar
LUMINATO, Toronto Roots & Four Seasons Hotel, June –Aug
2011
The University College Collection, U of T Art Centre, Jan-Mar
PlayNation, Design Exchange, Toronto, June -Oct
Royal Portraits, Beaverbrook Museum, Fredericton NB, July-Oct 2011
THE PACHTER FACTOR, The Art Space, Huntsville ON July -Aug
2012
1812:THE ART OF WAR, Moose Factory Gallery, Toronto, May – Oct
MONARCHS OF THE NORTH, Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts, Collingwood ON, June 9-23,
SELECTED WORKS, Train Station Gallery, Brantford ON Sep 8-31,
CINEMATIC cinema-themed Graphics, Hyatt Regency, Toronto Sep-Dec
2013
THE ART OF WAR Fort York National Historic Site, Toronto
A-R-T, The Art of Charles Pachter Art Gallery of Sudbury, Apr-June
LANDMARKS – ORILLIA MUSEUM OF ART & HISTORY July –Aug
POP GOES CANADIANA – ICONIC ART BY CHARLES PACHTER
Enterprise Square Galleries, University of Alberta, Edmonton Nov 1-30
THE SNOW SHOW, Michael Gibson Gallery, London ON
Nov 30 2013 -Jan 10 2014
2014
LEST WE FORGET -16 paintings commemorating the First World War
Lieutenant-Governor’s Suite, Queen’s Park, Toronto June 2014 – Aug
Oeno Gallery, Prince Edward County, Ontario Oct
Michael Gibson Gallery, London Ontario, Dec
2015
The Spoke Club, Toronto April-May
Alliance Française, Toronto, Sept-Oct
2016
The Charterhouse, London UK The British Loyalist Legacy and the Creation of Modern English Canada Aug Sept
2017
What Makes Thus Country Tick?
Retrospective, Peel Art Museum & Archives, Brampton
CHARLES PACHTER: The Cranbrook Years
Art Gallery of Windsor
