Charles Pachter

Charles Pachter is a leading contemporary artist: a painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, historian, and lecturer. He studied art history at the University of Toronto, French literature at the Sorbonne, and painting and graphics at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan and has taught printmaking at the University of Calgary. His work has been exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the McMichael Gallery. His murals of Hockey Knights in Canada can be seen in the College Subway Station in Toronto. His paintings are in the Portrait Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, Canada House in London, the Parliament Buildings, the Prime Minister’s residence, and the Embassy of France in Ottawa. His work is in public and private collections around the world.

Charles has held solo exhibitions in France, Germany, Japan, the UK, India, and Bangladesh. Recent solo exhibitions include in the Charterhouse in London, and a retrospective, “Quintessential Canadian”, at the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka. Charles’ steel and granite moose sculptures have been installed across Canada. At the Expo 67 in Montreal he supervised the installation of 60 contemporary sculptures from around the world and spearheaded Toronto’s Queen Street West revival in the 1970s and 80s by restoring 20 old buildings into facilities for arts usage.

In a career that has spanned over 60 years, he has produced works that are recognized as Canadian pop-art icons. His paintings of the Queen, Moose, Maple Leaf Flag, Barns, and his illustrations of Margaret Atwood’s poetry are among his best-known. Charles is also the author of the best-selling children’s book, M is for Moose and Canada Counts, and The Illustrated Journals of Susanna Moodie, his acclaimed collaboration with poet Margaret Atwood. McClelland & Stewart publications include an illustrated book on his life and work, CHARLES PACHTER by Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, 1992. Leonard Wise’s biography “CHARLES PACHTER: Canada’s Artist” was published by Dundurn Press in 2017

Charles lives and works in downtown Toronto in an award-winning studio and residence designed by Canadian architect Stephen Teeple. His work is on permanent display in his adjoining Moose Factory Gallery. His works are also displayed in MOFO –Moose Factory of Orillia- his second home and studio compound in the heart of the historic Ontario home town of Steven Leacock, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Franklin Carmichael, and Gordon Lightfoot. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Order of Ontario, a Chevalier of France's Order of Arts and Letters, and holds honorary doctorates from Brock University, OCAD University, the University of Toronto, and Lakehead University. He is a recipient of the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals.

As Director of API, Charles endorses IPF’s Art For Peace International (API) approach to conflict transformation as a means for people to effect change in their communities alongside other peacebuilding vehicles such as: sport, advocacy, dialogue and empowerment. Recognizing that art is a language of its own, Charles encourages the use of art in all of its forms. He hopes that IPF’s Art For Peace program will act as an impetus for cultural relations organizations to reassess the role that culture can play in development and peacebuilding, and also contribute to help increase recognition of the role that arts can play as part of international efforts to build a true and durable peace in a fragile world.