Literally the “last realist,” painter Joe Lasker is, at 92, the only living member of the 48 outstanding realists—including Edward Hopper, John Sloan and Raphael Soyer—who wrote for Reality, the mid-Fifties polemical journal that argued against non-representational art. “At this point, Joe Lasker is American history,” says Dr. Audrey Ushenko, Professor of Art and Art History, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. “He is a major narrative American realist who has played a vital role in the continuation and development of the country’s distinctive brand of narrative realism.” The oil paintings and watercolours depict cityscapes, landscapes, portraits, fantasies, interiors, seascapes and still lifes. Lasker’s works are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Baltimore Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum, Tel Aviv Museum and dozens of other museums. His many prizes include Prix de Rome and Guggenheim Fellowships and numerous awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Academy of Design (where he is a National Academician and the former Secretary). Lasker has remained faithful to Reality’s mission. “I feel that much of American art of the last 60 years has something missing, namely narrative,” Lasker says. “Without narrative there would be little left of the art of the Old Masters, of 20th-century expressionism and surrealism. There would be no Guernica by Picasso and little left of his prints.” "This artist has a special way of seeing figures and landscape….There is a psychological warmth and penetration in the work… especially stimulating canvasses… marvelously effective... a tour de force."— The New York Times "Extraordinary technique, engaging wit…Lasker's riffs on art history, life and convention are delivered with refreshing charm, irony and skill....pictures that veil social com undefined

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