Mary Pratt

A Love Affair with Vision

Anne Koval

• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781773101729
• eBook ISBN: 9781773101736
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Mary Pratt's art has captivated millions of Canadians. Her luminescent paintings capture reality in a way that few artists have been able to achieve — the chip in a glass bowl, the play of light across a dish-strewn supper table, the vulnerability of a naked woman. Replete with symbolism, Pratt's work elevates the traditional still life by transforming the everyday into the iconic.

Art historian Anne Koval wrote Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision in close consultation with Pratt. The book is informed by extensive interviews with the artist, and her family, friends, and colleagues and by unprecedented access to Pratt's archival holdings at Mount Allison University. This in-depth study of Pratt's life and work explores the complex issues of gender, feminism, and realism in Canadian art, resulting in a richly layered biography of an artist who redefined the visual culture of her period and whose art and life intersect in varied and surprising ways.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Praise for Mary Pratt
• Other books by Anne Koval
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The House Inside My Mother’s House
• Chapter 2 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman
• Chapter 3 Salmonier
• Interlude 1 “Cake, Apples, and Potatoes”
• Chapter 4 Supper Table
• Chapter 5 Recipes from Home
• Interlude 2 Broken Eggshells
• Chapter 6 A Room of One’s Own
• Interlude 3 “Big Mac”
• Chapter 7 This Is Donna
• Chapter 8 Moose Stories
• Interlude 4 “Fish Are the Beginnings of Life for Us”
• Chapter 9 Aspects of a Ceremony
• Interlude 5 How Does Your Garden Grow?
• Interlude 6 A Love Affair with Vision
• Chapter 10 Fire and Ice
• Epilogue The Children’s Hour
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright
• About the Author