The Painted Flag Horizontal

About The Painted Flag Horizontal

This pop art painting of a Canadian flag is by Charles Pachter.

One of Canada’s much-loved and collected contemporary artists, Charles Pachter is renowned for his iconic pop art images that often celebrate our national pride. Pachter is a multi-talented artist whose artistic endeavours include not only painting but sculpture, printmaking, design and writing. In this painting, the clean, graphic lines of a Canadian flag appears to flutter in the breeze and fill the frame. The deep blue background offers the perfect contrast to the red and white flag. Charles Pachter has been painting for more than six decades.
His impressive oeuvre has evolved over time and included portraits of notable Canadians—the first, Margaret Atwood, and several series dedicated to Canadian images including the Queen, the moose, the maple leaf, and barns. Pachter’s first embraced pared-down form and a bright colour palette in the early seventies. Since then most of his artwork has been focused on imagery that ‘puts Canada at the forefront.’ His art is often imbued with his own cheeky brand of humour—the ‘Pachter puns’ as he puts it are always ‘intended.’ One of a series.

“I was in my twenties in 1965 when the new Canadian flag was proclaimed on Parliament Hill. Eighteen years later in 1980, I began to think about commemorating the adoption of the new flag and I bought a flag and stuck it in a fence post hole and watched it moving in the wind and I was struck by how beautiful it looked under the influence of wind and light.” Charles Pachter

“Charles Pachter is the most Canadian artist this country has ever produced, including the Group of Seven. Charlie is a Group of One.” Leonard Wise, Author and Art Critic

Charles Pachter studied at the University of Toronto, the Sorbonne in Paris and at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the USA. Among his many accolades he is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters and a recipient of the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Europe, Japan, the UK, India and Bangladesh. His work is held in both private and public collections around the world including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum and the McMichael Gallery.