She was tiny, strong-featured, an unapologetic communist whose identity was rooted in Russia; she was stylish, outspoken and irascible; she was a painter, when the duties of motherhood would let her be. And because of the carved statue of a woman in a Paris decorative arts store window, she ended up married to a Toronto accountant, living in Rosedale.
Paraskeva Clark (1898-1986) is the subject of our next Extraordinary Women event, on Sunday, Sept. 24, 12:30 pm at the Revue Cinema. We will be screening Portrait of the Artist as an Old Lady, a 1982 NFB film produced and directed by Gail Singer. Joining us to discuss the film and Paraskeva’s remarkable career as a painter are Gail; Paraskeva’s granddaughter and Bloor West artist Panya Clark Espinal; art historian and curator Anna Hudson, who has written about the Toronto group between the wars of socially conscious modernist painters, which included Paraskeva; and art historian Mary Evans MacLachlan, who curated a 1982 show of Paraskeva’s work in Halifax. (Tickets are by voluntary donation ($10 suggested) in advance on Eventbrite or at the door.
Paraskeva’s working class origins in late Czarist Russia and during the early days of revolution were hard, marked by political upheaval, deprivation and cold. The early years were also laced with tragedy: Her mother, whose income from making artificial flowers helped support the family, died of pneumonia when Paraskeva, the oldest child, was 17. Her first husband, the great love of her life, drowned shortly after the birth of their child, leaving her a young single mother. Fortunately, she was able to move to France, where she lived with her in-laws near Paris, keeping house for them and looking after her son.
These experiences did not quell her energy or silence her outspoken bravado – even after landing in conservative, stultifying Toronto in 1931. They burned a social conscience into her soul and she would never fail to rail against the capitalist powers that be, the childbearing role women were forced by genetics to take on or the lack of social engagement in the work of her fellow Canadian artists.
McMichael Gallery chief curator and now director Sarah Milroy describes Paraskeva as “ferocious” in Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, the catalogue for the gallery’s 2021-22 show. Perhaps, as a result, Paraskeva managed to carve out time to paint some powerful images, particularly her self-portraits that challenge us years after they were painted. One of them graces the cover of Milroy’s catalogue.
We hope to see you at the Revue on Sunday, Sept. 24!