The Work of Andre Pater

Andre Pater shines bright in the world of contemporary sporting artists. Known especially for his mastery of light, the Polish-born, Kentucky-based artist imbues life and movement into his paintings in a vibrant, modern style that separates his art from the darker and moodier tradition of centuries past. “Pater’s inviting oils, pastels, and chalk drawings bring sporting art to the twenty-first century,” says Claudia Pfeiffer, the George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Art at Middleburg, Virginia’s National Sporting Library & Museum, where the renowned artist’s work is the subject of a new retrospective.

Pater grew up fascinated by horses, visiting the markets near his home in Poland with his mother and grandmother to observe the animals up close. After graduating with a degree in architecture, he moved to the United States and soon began painting full time. A wrong turn on a road trip through Kentucky horse country in 1988 led Pater to relocate his family to the Bluegrass, where Thoroughbreds and the broader sporting life began to dominate his canvases. The new NSLM exhibition, Andre Pater: In a Sporting Light, which runs through August 13, includes forty-eight works that Pater and curators selected from private collections across the country. You’ll find such scenes as a gundog in repose after a day’s hunt, a master of the hounds and his eager charges, colorfully clad jockeys, game birds, and more images from the field and paddock.