Biography

Allen Sapp was a Canadian artist known for his landscape and portrait paintings inspired by his native heritage. Sapp did not use sketches or photographs as references for his works, instead painting from memory. “I have to think here,” the artist once said while tapping his temple. “Before I can paint it here.” Born Allen Fredrick Sapp on January 2, 1928 in the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, the self-taught artist first began drawing and painting while recovering from a childhood illness. As he got older, Sapp would attempt to make a living selling his paintings door-to-door. He exhibited for the first time in the late 1960s, and public acclaim soon followed, with the artist receiving the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1985 and the title of Office of the Order of Canada in 1986 for his contributions to Canadian arts and culture. He died on December 29, 2015 in North Battleford, Canada at the age of 87.