signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: TrepanierBaer Gallery, Calgary AB
Note: from the series “Pop Paintings”
Exhibited: “Chris Cran, Sincerely Yours” (cat. no. 58): Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton AB (September 15, 2015-January 3, 2016); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa ON (May 20-September 5, 2016). This work is illustrated on page 106 (plate 58) of the book published in conjunction with the exhibition: “Chris Cran, Sincerely Yours” (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; 2016).
The theme of framing devices recurs in Chris Cran’s work, as the artist explores the ways in which perception is framed, both by our actual field of vision, and by external devices that manipulate and draw attention to what we see: i.e. a window; a curtain; an archway; a camera lens; the frame of a painting etc. In this work, “Wall with Portrait and Curtain”, a framed portrait of a man’s face appears to be hung against a green wall. Cran reframes and shifts our view by employing the swathe of dark drapery along the left edge of the canvas, pulled back to theatrical effect. The portrait of choice is a familiar one for Cran, one reminiscent of a 1950s advertisement or catalogue, done in a halftone technique that pays homage to Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement. On the surface, the work is a painting of a painting of his rendering of a mass-media image. The effect is that it challenges the viewer’s perspective and beliefs about how we view art.