Lot 33: Chris Cran 1949 - Canadian oil on canvas

Chris Cran 1949 - Canadian oil on canvas Self-Portrait Just Two Maos Down from Some Guy with a Goddamned Tea Cosy on his Head 66 1/4 x 108 1/4 inches 168.3 x 274.9 centimeters on verso signed, titled, dated 1985 and inscribed ""hang 1 1/2 feet from floor"" Literature:Grant Arnold, Chris Cran: Loved by Millions, Art Gallery of Windsor, 1989, reproduced plate 3 Victoria Baster, Chris Cran: Heads, The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 1993, reproduced page 15 Barbara Racker et al, From Soup to Nuts: Pop Art and Its Legacy, from the Collection of the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Eastern Washington State Historical Society and University of Lethbridge, 1998, reproduced page 72 Provenance:Private Collection Exhibited:Stride Gallery, Calgary, Chris Cran: Paintings, April 1986 Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Inherent Vice, December 5, 1987 - January 24, 1988 Art Gallery of Windsor, Chris Cran: Loved by Millions, 1989 University of Lethbridge, From Soup to Nuts: Pop Art and Its Legacy, from the Collection of the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, 1998, traveling in 1998 - 2000 to Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, Washington and J. Wayne Stark University Center Galleries, Texas A&M University University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Artist's Artists, June 5 - September 22, 2006 Chris Cran's explorations of popular culture, artistic authorship, fame and the politics of high art are expressed incisively in the large format Self-Portrait series executed in the mid and late 1980s. In this one, he places himself in context with Mao Tse-tung and Andy Warhol. Cran appears as the well-heeled artist on the left, whose respectful viewing of the red Mao has been interrupted as he notices and glances with disapproval at the defiant figure on the right who crosses his arms over his chest and stares directly, we presume, into the face of the blue Mao. Yellow Mao's gaze captures ours, and an interesting moment of art psychology unfolds as he seems to ask our opinion on this situation. The size of the figures in the work underscores this as, relative to us, they are almost life size; thus we might be standing in another room in the same gallery, gazing in. The smoothly painted surface of the work, cleanly executed in primary colours with black and white, speaks of Pop Art, as does the incongruous message the work sends.