2020 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

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signed lower right; signed & titled on the stretcher verso

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signed lower right; signed & titled verso

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signed lower left; signed & titled verso

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signed lower right; titled verso

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signed, titled & dated verso

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signed lower right; signed & titled verso

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signed lower left; signed & titled verso

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signed & editioned in pencil
Provenance: Kensington Fine Art Gallery, Calgary AB

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Canadian RCA [b. 1949]
CRUCIFIXION (STRIPE PAINTINGS); 1989
oil and acrylic on wood panel
48 x 12 in. (121.9 x 30.5 cm)
signed & dated verso
Note: Chris Cran developed his process for the Stripe Paintings series in 1989, and subsequent series have used the same innovative technique. The artist first prepares and paints the board or canvas with a flat layer of unmodulated paint. He then extends strips of tape across the entire surface. Using photographic or print source material, Cran then paints a monochromatic image on top of the taped surface, which he softens and blurs with a brushing technique while the paint is still wet. Once the tape is removed (an experience the artist likens to “opening a Christmas present”) the image transforms, taking on depth and an aura of colour. The viewer is compelled to reconstruct the now interrupted image, and the optical effect created by the oscillating field of stripes is, paradoxically, one of veiling the image.

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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.