Joseph Plaskett

Joseph "Joe" Plaskett (12 July 1918 – 21 September 2014) was a Canadian painter. He studied with many prominent Canadian painters like A.Y. Jackson, Jack Shadbolt, Lawren Harris and Jock Macdonald. Joe Plaskett was a pupil of Hans Hofmann in New York and Provincetown in 1947^[1] and 1948.

Plaskett was born in New Westminster, British Columbia in 1918.^[1] In 1950, he arrived in Paris where he studied with Fernand Léger, and Jean Lombard, etching and engraving with Stanley William Hayter. He taught intermittently in Canada until 1957. After that date he settled definitely in Paris where his studio became an informal salon for Canadian painters, writers, poets and filmmakers, interfacing with artists from other countries.

In the Spring of 2001, he received the Order of Canada for his excellence in the field of visual art.^[2] He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.^[3]

Since the 1940s, he has had over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with work in major public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada.^[1]

Plaskett studied art in Banff, San Francisco, New York, London and Paris. He has lived in Paris since 1951, and more recently in Suffolk, England.^[1] His chosen subjects have always been intimate expressions of everyday life – interiors, still life, and portraits of friends and models.

In 2004, he set up The Joe Plaskett Foundation which makes an annual award to a Canadian artist to enable them to travel to Europe to grow and study.^[1]

Plaskett's 90th birthday occurred in 2008.^[1] To celebrate, exhibitions were held in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. Plaskett continued to paint daily, and his work is held in many collections worldwide. He died on 21 September 2014 at the age of 96.^[4]

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