Chris Cran

Canadian RCA [b. 1949]

Chris Cran is a visual artist living in Calgary, Alberta. He graduated in 1979 from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Nickle Art Galleries at the University of Calgary, AB; Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, and Mylona Gallery, Zurich, CH. In addition his work has been shown at 49th Parallel Gallery, New York, NY (1992), Taejŏn Expo 93, South Korea (1993), and the Fourth International Painting Biennial, Cuenca, Ecuador (1994). 

In 2016 the National Gallery of Canada exhibited Sincerely Yours, a survey of more than 130 of Cran’s works from 1984 to 2016. Cran received the ACAD Alumni Award of Excellence in 2011; the Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award in 2014; he was awarded the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s Lawrence J. Burpee Medal in 2018; in 2021 he received an Honorary Master of Fine Art from the Alberta University of the Art, and in 2022 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal. 

Cran’s work is in numerous public and private collections. He is represented by Trépanier Baer Gallery, Calgary, AB; Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto, ON, and Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles.

Some Results from our Previous Auctions

Chris Cran

Chris Cran - Hodgins Art Auctions
8,190.00
Price Realized: $

Artist: Chris Cran

Title: WALL WITH PORTRAIT AND CURTAIN

Date: 2006

Medium: oil and acrylic on canvas

Dimensions: 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)

Notes:

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.

10,000.00
Estimate:
15,000.00
 - 

LOT: 134

Auction: 2020 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

4,095.00
Price Realized: $

Artist: Chris Cran

Title: ORANGE SCREEN (SILVER/ORANGE) #1

Date: 2004

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Notes:

signed, titled & dated
Provenance: Trepanier-Baer Gallery, Calgary, AB (label verso)

2,000.00
Estimate:
3,000.00
 - 

LOT: 39

Auction: 2017 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

1,989.00
Price Realized: $

Artist: Chris Cran

Title: CRUCIFIXION (STRIPE PAINTINGS)

Date: 1989

Medium: oil and acrylic on wood panel

Dimensions: 48 x 12 in. (121.9 x 30.5 cm)

Notes:

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.

3,000.00
Estimate:
5,000.00
 - 

LOT: 135

Auction: 2020 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

1,080.00
Price Realized: $

Artist: Chris Cran

Title: GREEN STILL LIFE

Date: 2001

Medium: colour serigraph on paper; ed. #9/40

Dimensions: 27 x 21 in. (68.6 x 53.3 cm)

Notes:

signed, titled, dated & editioned in pencil

700.00
Estimate:
1,000.00
 - 

LOT: 221

Auction: 2023 December | Hodgins Art Auctions

409.50
Price Realized: $

Artist: Chris Cran

Title: BLUE LEMONS

Date: 2000

Medium: colour etching on paper; ed. #43/50

Dimensions: 12.75 x 10 in. (32.4 x 25.4 cm)

Notes:

signed, titled, dated & editioned

500.00
Estimate:
700.00
 - 

LOT: 618

Auction: 2017 September | Hodgins Art Auctions

390.00
Price Realized: $

Artist: Chris Cran

Title: SEVILLE

Date: 2004

Medium: colour serigraph on paper; ed. #8/32

Dimensions: 11.25 x 8.5 in. (28.6 x 21.6 cm)

Notes:

signed, titled, dated & editioned in pencil

300.00
Estimate:
500.00
 - 

LOT: 222

Auction: 2023 December | Hodgins Art Auctions

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