Streetcar Circus 5/20

About Streetcar Circus 5/20

For pop artist Charles Pachter, the Toronto streetcar symbolizes the urban landscape he calls home. The iconic image of the streetcar whose tracks have criss-crossed Canada’s largest city for decades was once known as ‘the red rocket’ because of its deep red paint colour. In this lithograph the bright colours of a large image of the back of the streetcar in hot pink and blue with three more smaller images of streetcars in classic red, yellow and one in green pop against a black backdrop. Pachter is a much-admired Canadian artistic polymath, his colourful pop artwork merging playful even irreverent elements with deeply iconic imagery.

“….a good art critic would compare it with Warhol’s soup cans but (it’s) the old red rocket of Toronto. So, I did a whole series on the streetcars, and it was a very successful show at the Isaacs Gallery in 1972, in Toronto.” Charles Pachter


A painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, and author, Pachter is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Sorbonne-Paris. He is an Officer of the prestigious Order of Canada, a Chevalier of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and twice a recipient of the Queen's Jubilee medal. He has honorary doctorate degrees from the Ontario College of Art & Design, the University of Toronto, and Brock University. His paintings are in public and private collections around the world.