PURPLE CYCLAMEN ON BLUE IV
pastel
14.5 X 10 in.
framed dimension: 18 x 14 in.
$1,100

WHITE LILIES III
pastel
14.75 X 11 in.
framed dimension: 23.5 x 20 in.
SOLD

PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN COLE

Joseph Plaskett was born in 1918 in New Westminster, BC. Joe took a liberal arts grounding at the University of British Columbia, resulting in an honours degree in history. Though he was a teacher for a few years, Joe was already exploring his interest in art. Studying at the Vancouver School of Art (1940-2) brought praise and encouragement from GG Sedgewick, Lawren Harris, Jock Macdonald, Jack Shadbolt and BC Binning, the names on the foundation stones of Canadian art. Support came also from AY Jackson and then Emily Carr whose scholarship Joe was the first to receive. This scholarship was a turning point as it took Joe to San Francisco where abstraction awaited him in teachers like David Park and Clyfford Still. In New York City under Hans Hoffmann, a central figure in the history of modern art, Plaskett further explored the boundaries of pictorial structure and in 1949 Joe travelled to Paris where he tamed these forces with instruction from masters including Fernand Léger, a key figure in the history of all art. Innate talent began to stabilise into something greater.

This early forging of talent in the intense heat of modernity would have enormous influence on Joe’s understanding of space within a composition.. Dividing his time in the next decade between Canada and his new home in Paris, tempered this understanding of modern abstraction taking from it a heightened and forceful sense of colour that in turn drives expressive and poetic presentation of subject matter. Rather than returning to representation after abstraction, Joe transcended abstraction with his new aesthetic which chose to represent glamorous bric-à-brac scenes of Proustian banality in dramatic colour.

Joe taught again at the Vancouver School of Art and Emma Lake in the 50s but made Paris his permanent home in 1960. Since that time Joe has lived in Europe.Since 2001, he has lived in Suffolk, England. Despite living abroad for over fifty years, he is staunchly Canadian. Almost annually he has returned to his homeland and held exhibitions across the country. A legendary host and supporter of Canadian artists working in Europe, he was considered an unofficial Ambassador in Paris. He finally gave up his 15th century Paris townhouse, home to fantastic parties throughout the age of parties, in 2004 and dedicated the proceeds of the sale to the establishment of the Plaskett Foundation. The foundation funds a year of European development for a young Canadian artist. When the formation of the foundation was announced in 2005, Mr. Plaskett said, "I created this award in emulation of what Emily Carr did for me in 1946. I would like young Canadian artists to enjoy the privileges I experienced more than a half century ago. Europe and, above all, France, have left me richer in knowledge and experience. Although things have changed a great deal since I first traveled and studied abroad, the lesson of Europe and its past is always waiting for those ready to learn."

Beginning with his first exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1951, Joe has exhibited in Canada’s greatest public galleries. His list of solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada and Europe, is immense and in 2001 Joe was invested into the Order of Canada The Plaskett bibliography is similarly impressive including numerous reviews, catalogues and the celebrated 1991 memoir, A Speaking Likeness and the 2006 reminiscences of friends and colleagues published as The Book of Joe.

Reading these books and considering these latest artworks, one is given the sense that Joe Plaskett has painted a life around himself – that colour, dramatic energy and a well-timed sense of the luxurious promote longevity and create a life worth living.

TURNIPS AND BEETS II, 2007
oil on canvas
19.75 x 39.75 in.
framed
$12,000

STILL LIFE ON RECTANGLES VII, 2007
oil on canvas
33.75 x 39.75 in.
framed
$17,000

BULRUSH AND RED APPLES, 2005
oil on canvas
37 x 26 in.
framed
$12,000

TURNIPS AND BEETS I, 2007
oil on canvas
39.75 x 19.75 in.
framed
SOLD

SQUARE STILL LIFE VII, 2007
oil on canvas
39.5 x 39.5 in.
framed
$19,000

BRUNO BOBAK AND JOSEPH PLASKETT AT THE 90th BIRTHDAY RECEPTION (2008), COMPLETE WITH CAKE!

BLUE PERIOD, 2007
oil on canvas
21.75 x 35.75 in.
framed
$10,000

REFLECTIONS ON TURNING NINETY

Think of it – the challenge and excitement of old age, the approaching extinction that death brings – all part of the drama of being alive! 

To reach ninety is becoming commonplace. It is no longer a feat. I owe it to the luck of good genes – both parents lasted into their 90's. I am making a celebration of it only because, when I turned 70 I held a big party in Paris , and did the same when I turned 80 in Suffolk . That was the party to end all parties.

The third decade-celebration takes the form of holding seven separate exhibitions across Canada . My zest for exhibition has over a long career become increasingly a mania. The ecstasy I feel as I survey  work I have done I want to share with the world – not the whole world  which couldn't care less, but my private world, which is my country, Canada. An aged painter cannot help but accept the fact that his work belongs in the past. Younger painters have leaped into the phenomenon called contemporary, where it would be foolish of me to try to enter. But I can claim my own phenomenon, the existence of a public that loves and is moved by what I do, and this public even includes my peers some of whom are young and contemporary. I now paint works that I would previously have not been capable of painting, works that take me by surprise and leave me in a state of wonder and amazement. When I see older work that has stood the test of time (not everything I do does) I cannot recall how I have done it. At a certain point the painting seems to have painted itself without my help – what I have called the "eureka" moment when a sudden daring intervention has worked a miracle.

How much longer can this go on? I still feel 'in my prime'. I must look old, as younger people keep offering me a seat in a bus or metro. Deafness and ageing have restricted my activities so that all I am really good for is my work, but when painting I am almost as tireless as ever I was. I keep saying that painting keeps me youthful, or ageless. But hovering over waking, and even sleeping, brain-activity is the spectre of Death, which I insist on not seeing as an invisible enemy but as a friend. At an early age death is tragic. I would resent it coming tomorrow, but when it comes in the fullness of time, it must be counted a blessing. I think back on the most vivid encounter I have had with death, that of my father in 1963. After minor strokes and a fall that broke his leg, I was summoned home from Italy . He was hospitalised and for a month my mother and I made daily visits, but as his brain was affected, conversation was limited, so I began bringing paper and pastels and making constant drawings of him. There must be nearly one hundred, depicting a man slowly dying. Was I cruelly exploiting a human predicament for the sake of art and its glory? One night there was an unheard of natural phenomenon, a hurricane. I remember watching through the window the wild turmoil outside. A large tree in the garden was swaying back and forth until a moment came when there was no forth, the tree was laid back. At 4 a.m. that night I was awakened by a phone call, the hospital announcing that my Dad had died. I made one more drawing of him in his coffin. This portfolio of drawings is an homage to death, or the homage that art can pay to it. These works have never been exhibited, but they are perhaps a unique record.

But let me return to life, which goes on and on as long as it can. Because of my art, every moment can be precious. I will be happy if I can be granted five more years of joyful activity. This small exhibition is a cross section of what the other six contain.