signed & dated lower right
Provenance: Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg MB
Literature: “A Cree Life, The Art of Allen Sapp” (Thecla Warner & John Bradshaw; J. J. Douglas Ltd., 1977); “I Heard the Drums” (Allen Sapp; Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd., 1996); Two Spirits Soar” (W. P. Kinsella; Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd., 1990).
Born on the Red Pheasant Reserve, in north-central Saskatchewan, Cree artist Allen Sapp’s art is the story of his life. After moving to North Battleford to pursue a career as an artist, in the early 1960s, Sapp would walk the streets of the town with his bundle of paintings under his arm. At the time, he painted mostly landscapes, often of the mountain, and other scenes that he had never experience first-hand; he assumed this is what buyers would want.
An encounter with a doctor at a local clinic, where Sapp had tried to sell his work, soon transformed his career. Dr. Alan Gonor encouraged Sapp to paint what he knew, and specifically requested a painting of his reservation, giving the artist money for supplies. In response, Sapp produced the painting “Red Pheasant Farmyard”. A long-term partnership and friendship developed between the two men. Dr. Gonor arranged weekly art sessions between Sapp and Wynona Mulcaster, then art professor at the University of Saskatchewan, and drove Sapp to Saskatoon every Sunday during the winter of 1967 to meet with his new advisor. The following year was pivotal. In 1968, Sapp had his first professional exhibits – at a gallery in Montreal, and on the grounds of Mulcaster’s home. An exhibition at the Mendel Art Gallery followed in 1969, and was viewed by 13,000 people. Within a few years, Sapp’s work was being exhibited in New York and major galleries in Canada.
Allen Sapp’s work focuses on everyday life and experiences, and often depicts chores such as cutting wood, gathering water, harvesting, tending to the horses and loading hay -scenes he recreated from memory. Of this, Sapp has said “When I started to paint life as I remembered it on the reserve, I didn’t need any pictures to remind me. It was as if my mind was a camera and would place before me pictures of places and events of many years ago while growing up on the Red Pheasant Reserve.”
