Artist Info
Chris Cran
A Canadian artist at the vanguard of post-modernity, Chris Cran employs a range of art forms and styles to satirise the stuffiness and pretension of the art world. Rather than meeting censure for his send-ups, Cran is widely praised as one of Canada’s most notable painters in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and The New York Times lauds him for having “built a career on tampering with people’s perceptions.”
Born in Ocean Falls, B.C., Cran graduated from the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson (1976), and later from the Alberta College of Art + Design with his M.F.A. (1979). A 1978 Edmonton lecture by hallowed U.S. art critic Clement Greenberg stirred Cran’s resentment against modernist hegemony in art criticism, and provoked Cran to mock the values of the art establishment, including its value of money. Most famous among such satirical works is “Self Portrait Accepting a Cheque for the Commission of this Painting,” whose title leaves out only the presence of the man granting the cheque and the actual dollar amount on it. Comic film maker Bruce McCulloch wrote in his National Gallery of Canada essay on the piece, “That is a perfect comedy idea…. [I]t celebrates and skewers the very nature of art and commerce at the same time.”
In addition to the five years of self-portraiture he began in 1984, Cran has experimented widely while continually deploying illusions and visual tricks to challenge viewer perceptions. The body of his work—ranging from landscapes and pop art to abstraction and video installations—is so varied it appears to be the work of an entire school of accomplished artists instead of only one man.
Cran has won numerous grants and awards, and served as senior artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre. The 2013 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art included Cran’s work, as does the National Gallery of Canada (which also purchased three items for its permanent collection) during its Second Canadian Biennial (2012-13).
