Sold for: $6,875

PROVENANCE
The Gallery Fine Art, St. John's
Canadian Art, Joyner Fine Art, November 28, 1989, lot 436
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Anne Koval, Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision, 2023, 201

"Pratt considers fish as 'symbolic of life itself, and of the sea.' She says: 'They are beautiful. They are the food, the sort of base food for us all, spiritually.'" -Anne Koval

Mary Pratt’s body of work comprises many things, one of which, by necessity, is domesticity. Her role as wife and mother placed her into direct engagement with what her razor-sharp perception would turn into art. Intimate moments struck Pratt with their resonance, with light itself becoming paramount to her work. Early revelations included sunlight sprawling across an unmade bed and the detritus of a table after a family meal. These observations continued into rapturous expressions of jam jars, eggs, and, as explored here, fish. Her fish works are self-evident as sensitive and accomplished still-lives, but can also be interpreted in other ways. One interpretation would be that of re-appropriation. Much like her contemporary Joyce Wieland – who sought out artforms typically classified as “women’s work,” such as textiles – Pratt re-engages with the complex socio-political contexts of the everyday. In her depictions of domesticities, Pratt both illuminates and complicates her role as a homemaker, while exercising a renewed agency in relation to it.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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