Clark, Paraskeva, 1898-1986 : Paraskeva Clark, née Plistik, was born in St. Petersburg, in the Soviet Union. Her early art training began there in 1916, initially under the direction of Savely Zeidenberg. In 1918, she began working in the Free Art Studios (newly established after the Revolution to replace the Academies) under the tutelage of Kazuma Petrov-Vodkin and Vassily Shoukaeff, where she continued her art studies until 1921. In 1923, after the death of her first husband, Oreste Allegri Jr., with whom she had begun working in theatre set design, the artist emigrated to Paris with her first son, Benedict Allegri, in order to live with her in-laws. She found employment there until her second marriage to Philip T. Clark, of Toronto, in 1931. Paraskeva Clark emigrated to Canada with him in the summer of 1931. A second son, Clive, was born in 1933.
Her involvement with the art scene in Canada began in 1932 when she exhibited in a group show with members of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. During the early 1930s, the artist did a number of commissioned window displays for the T. Eaton Company. In 1936, her first major exhibition took place at the Galleries of J. Merritt Malloney in Toronto where she showed with four other women painters - Kathleen Daly, Yvonne McKague, Isabel McLaughlin and Rody Kenny Courtice (the same year she was elected a member of the Canadian Group of Painters). The following year, Clark joined the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, another group with which she would regularly exhibit. In 1939, the Art Gallery of Toronto included her works in a group show with Caven Atkins, David Milne and Carl Schaefer. By 1940, she had exhibited in numerous venues in the United States (including the 1939 New York World's Fair), in New Zealand and at the Tate Gallery in London.
Association with Douglas Duncan and the Picture Loan Society introduced her to J.S. McLean who became a life-long friend and supporter of her art.
During the period 1936-1946, Clark was an active participant in numerous political organizations. Friendship with Norman Bethune led to her involvement with the Campaign to Aid Spanish Democracy. During World War II, she committed her energies to the Aid to Russia Fund, raising monies through the sale of paintings in support of the cause, and through the arrangement of cultural exchanges. Clark maintained close ties with organizations working to strengthen Canadian-Soviet friendship, serving as National Vice-President of the Federation of Russian Canadians from 1944-1946. Through a series of lectures she gave to cultural groups on the history of Russian art, Clark sought to better inform the Canadian public about the artistic achievements of the Soviet Union. A commission by the National Gallery of Canada led to her painting the activities of the Women's Division of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1945.
The artist continued exhibiting regularly in group shows throughout the period 1950-1965. Her career enjoyed a strong resurgence, beginning in 1975, when the National Gallery of Canada featured her prominently in their exhibition entitled "Canadian Painting in the Thirties". In 1981, Clark was the subject of a National Film Board documentary entitled "Portrait of the Artist as an Old Lady" and, in 1983, Dalhousie Art Gallery organized a major retrospective of her work.
Although unavoidably drawn to the subject matter of landscape upon her arrival in Canada in 1931, due to the enormous influence of the Group of Seven, Clark is perhaps best-known for her "Self-Portrait" of 1933. Other examples of her portraiture, landscapes and still lifes are held in major collections throughout Canada including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Dalhousie Art Gallery.
