en-ca SC0277-PMA1-PR-1

en-ca Newnham - Building B - Level 2 - Library - Back Wall

en-ca Mary Pratt (1935-2018)

en-ca Tied Boat

en-ca 1980

en-ca Print

en-ca Lithograph

en-ca Coloured pencil

en-ca 35cm diameter

en-ca 15/60

en-ca “…the surface is what informs us. Ours senses react to surfaces. We see them; we touch, taste, and feel them. It is only after this initial confrontation that we can judge. My work is, for me, a celebration of this immediate reaction.” (Mary Pratt, Catalogue, London Regional Art Gallery, 1981)

en-ca “My only strength is finding something where most people would find nothing.”

“I can't stand theory because it is imposed by the intellectual. And the intellectual is, by definition, not a creative person. The intellectual is a person who talks about the creative process, but often doesn't understand it.”

“The fact is that until I saw paintings as icons, I couldn't see why people painted at all.”

en-ca Art Quotes

en-ca Tied Boat was originally designed to be a simple lithographic print, but Mary Pratt was not satisfied with the colouration and decided to recolour each of sixty prints by hand. When the image was purchased from the Aggregation Gallery, about two dozen prints were spread on the floor to choose from. Each differed in terms of saturation, brightness and intensity — from very subtle to very bold. No two were the same. This is not surprising when we understand Pratt’s propensity for organizing the surface of things and for bathing her subjects in atmosphere. What makes Tied Boat so interesting is that instead of letting nature light her subject (Pratt’s usual modus operandi), here she becomes the arbiter. As in so many of her paintings, Pratt zeroes in on her ordinary, unexceptional subject matter. The resulting exclusion of peripheral non-essentials allows us to concentrate on the objects otherwise unobserved complexity. Chance encounters with the essentials and inessentials of her household are often turned into paintings. She writes: "Seeing the groceries come in for instance. Or cooking. I'm getting supper, and suddenly I look at the cod fillet spread out on the tinfoil and I think, 'That's gorgeous, that's absolutely beautiful' ". Those same objects--fish, eggs, cake, fruit, jelly--are often depicted in simple containers--bowls, cartons, plates, tinfoil--as if they were offerings. Tied Boat too, like a pair of cupped hands, offers itself up for aesthetic edification. Unlike her husband’s transcendent New Boat, Mary’s boat is in the moment. (David Phillips, Seneca Polytechnic)

en-ca Purchased from Aggregation Gallery.

en-ca Signed under the right reflection of the boat Mary (Middle Initial), Pratt 1980

Seneca Art