Canadian master colourist Joseph Francis Plaskett (1918‐2014), a representational rebel
who introduced half of Toronto’s Painters Eleven to Hofmann and to each other, sidestepped
the abstract era to spend fifty years in Paris and his last sixteen in the UK, promoting
internationalism in the arts and exploring how Hofmann’s teachings relate to realism.
For fifty years his ornate studio in Paris became a magnet for Canadian artists, writers,
filmmakers, and poets abroad. Despite his humble existence as an expatriate, Plaskett
exhibited regularly in major galleries across Canada all his life. In the spring of 2001,
he received the Order of Canada, and in 2004, he established the Joseph Plaskett Award to
enable young Canadian painters to travel to Europe.
In archival footage the artist unveils his own search for meaning, as Takao Tanabe, poet
Phyllis Webb, Marta Braun, New York artist Paul Resika, and many others describe the magic
of his work and gatherings in the documentary
Tablescapes. |
Above: Joseph Plaskett in Suffolk, UK, 2007 |
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Tablescapes will be the second of the international art documentary series
Colour Creates Light: A Diaspora, produced by Lumikalai Film. |