Plaskett, Joe, 1918-2014 : Joseph "Joe" Plaskett was born in New Westminister, B.C., in 1918. After graduating with a history degree from the University of British Columbia in 1939 and beginning his career as a school teacher, he studied art at the Vancouver School of Art and the Banff School under the influential teachers A.Y Jackson, Jack Shadbolt, and B.C. Binning. Further inspiration and encouragement came from his friendships with Jock MacDonald and Lawren Harris, which developed in the 1940s.
In 1946, Plaskett won an Emily Carr scholarship to study in San Francisco, and in New York under Hans Hofmann. In 1947, he became Principal of the Winnipeg School of Art, where he stayed for two years, teaching and administering the school. In 1949, he left for Paris, where he studied with, among others, Fernand Leger, and the Slade in London, where he received a bursary awarded by the British Arts Council. On his return to Canada, Plaskett held exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the University of British Columbia Art Gallery, and in Winnipeg and Toronto. He taught classes at the Vancouver School of Art 1952-1953, but went back to Paris in 1953 with a Canada Council Overseas Scholarship to study printmaking with Stanley Hayter. He again returned to Canada to teach at the University of British Columbia, the Vancouver School of Art and at Emma Lake in Saskatchewan, 1955-1956, but in 1957 took up permanent residence in Paris.
For years, Plaskett lived and painted in Paris, while also maintaining homes in Suffolk, England, and New Westminister, B.C., and he travelled extensively around the world. However, he largely exhibited and sold his work in Canada, where he held exhibitions almost every year. In 1967-68, he received a Canada Council grant to paint the landscape of Canada from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island and in 1980-81 he did a series of paintings of the Pacific Northwest Coast. He is best-known for his interiors and still-lifes, as well as his portraits and self-portraits. His works are held in the National Gallery of Canada and in private and public collections throughout Canada.
In 1999, Joe Plaskett's memoir, A Speaking Likeness, was published by Ronsdale Press, with a foreword by the late George Woodcock. In 2004, he created the Joe Plaskett Foundation to award and provide financial support to develop the craft of young Canadian arts through travel and study in Europe.
Joe Plaskett died September 21, 2014 at the age of 96.
