# Leopold Plotek > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Leopold_Plotek > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Leopold_Plotek.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Plotek > Source revision: 1343237726 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Canadian artist (born 1948)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Infobox artist | name = Leopold Plotek | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{bya|1948}} | birth_place = [Moscow](/source/Moscow), USSR | death_date = | death_place = | spouse = | field = | training = [McGill University](/source/McGill_University)
Sir George Williams University
[Slade School of Fine Art](/source/Slade_School_of_Fine_Art) | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = | elected = | known_for = abstract [painter](/source/painter) }} '''Leopold Plotek''' (born 1948), combines [abstraction](/source/abstraction) and figuration in large format paintings which take as their starting point his memories, his experience of architecture, objects and art (he mentions [Picabia](/source/Picabia), Cubism and other sources as important),{{cite web |title=Leopold Plotek |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R_VK58VEvk |website=www.youtube.com | date=5 November 2021 |publisher=Corkin Gallery |access-date=2021-12-21}} as well as his readings in art, history (often Soviet), and poetry of all periods. His works of the late 1970s were influenced by [Adrian Stokes](/source/Adrian_Stokes_(critic)) writings, especially ''Stones of Rimimi'' (1934), and in the 1980s by object relations theory in general. His references are often elliptically treated however, as he develops ways of painting them according to his own recipe which varies, picture to picture. In this singular pictorial dynamic,{{cite journal |last1=Viau |first1=René |title=Leopold Plotek: l'histoire... et encore |journal=Le Devoir |date=March 24, 2007 |url=https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/arts-visuels/136470/leopold-plotek-l-histoire-et-encore|access-date=2021-12-21}} each painting is basically a conception on its own, though a series of sorts can exist. As a result, certain of Plotek’s paintings prefigure the practice of many contemporary abstract painters and can be viewed, like them, as extending the range of abstraction.E. C. Woodley. Visual Art: Leopold Plotek. BorderCrossings Magazine, Volume 28, No 1, Issue No. 109, 2009. ==Early years== Plotek was born in Moscow, USSR, and grew up in Poland. His parents spent much of the Second World War in Ukbekhestan, Tashkent, to which Plotek credits the family's survival as Jews. He left Poland with his parents, emigrating with them to Canada in 1960.{{cite web |title=Artist's Talk |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtsUCKvnwDg |website=www.youtube.com | date=10 September 2014 |publisher=McMaster Art Gallery, McMaster University |access-date=2021-12-21}} He was educated in Montreal at [McGill University](/source/McGill_University) (Classics) (1966), received his B.F.A. at Sir George Williams University (today Concordia University), in Montreal where he studied with [Yves Gaucher](/source/Yves_Gaucher) and [Roy Kiyooka](/source/Roy_Kiyooka) (1970) and took additional study at the [Slade School of Fine Art](/source/Slade_School_of_Fine_Art), London, with [William Townsend](/source/William_Townsend_(painter)) (1970–1971).{{cite book |title=Leopold Plotek: Five Years of Painting |date=1990 |publisher=Concordia Art Gallery |location=Montreal|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aPlotek/aplotek/1%2C1%2C4%2CB/frameset&FF=aplotek+leopold+1948&2%2C%2C4 |access-date=2021-12-23}} ==Career== He participated in ''Quebec 75'' (1975), with seventeen other artists and held a solo show (1976) at Concordia University when Georges Bogardi reviewed his work.Georges Bogardi, "Toward definitions". Montreal Star, Mtl., P..Q., Mar. 8, 1975; "Beyond history" Oct. 30, 1976. A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada. In 1979, he was included as one of the six artists in ''6 Propositions'' at the [Montreal Museum of Fine Arts](/source/Montreal_Museum_of_Fine_Arts) (MMFA), where he was considered the odd man out because of his adherence to the figure.{{sfn|Nasgaard |2008|p=332}} In 1988, he participated in a show with [Susanna Heller](/source/Susanna_Heller) and [Medrie MacPhee](/source/Medrie_MacPhee) at [Southern Alberta Art Gallery](/source/Southern_Alberta_Art_Gallery), Alberta.{{cite web |title=Medrie MacPhee, Susanna Heller, Leopold Plotek |url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aPlotek/aplotek/1%2C1%2C4%2CB/frameset&FF=aplotek+leopold+1948&3%2C%2C4 |website=library.gallery.ca |publisher=Southern Alberta Art Gallery |access-date=2021-12-24}} He has had an extensive exhibition history, both solo and group. In 2014, a solo at McMaster Museum of Art, [McMaster University](/source/McMaster_University), included Plotek's "History Paintings" curated by Ben Portis and selections from the [Sovfoto](/source/Sovfoto) Archive at the [MacLaren Art Centre](/source/MacLaren_Art_Centre) as parts of the exhibition, ''Workingman's Dead: Lives of the Artists''.{{cite web |title=Leopold Plotek: Artist's Talk |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtsUCKvnwDg |website=www.youtube.com | date=10 September 2014 |publisher=McMaster Museum of Art |access-date=2021-12-21}} Beginning in the 1990s, Plotek’s History Paintings revived something of the lost representational conceptions of painting in the 18th and 19th centuries, which he often applied to his imaginings of Soviet era scenes from the lives of various prominent figures such as Shostakovich and Isaac Babel. He painted himself as a baby with his nanny in the Hotel Metropole in Moscow, which was filled with party elite, and housed, in passing, various political prisoners and their keepers. In 2017, the Koffler Centre of the Arts, Toronto, presented ''Leopold Plotek: No Work, Nor Device, Nor Knowledge, Nor Wisdom'', curated by E.C. Woodley, which surveyed five decades of the artist's practice. A catalogue was published with an essay by E.C. Woodley ({{Listed Invalid ISBN|798-1-928175-13-1}}).{{cite web |title=Leopold Plotek: No Work, Nor Device, Nor Knowledge, Nor Wisdom |url=https://kofflerarts.org/Exhibitions/Gallery/Online-Publications/Leopold-Plotek-No-Work,-Nor-Device,-Nor-Knowledge, |website=kofflerarts.org |publisher=Koffler |access-date=2021-12-22}} The exhibition showcased paintings from 1979 to the present, with his most recent works alongside important earlier canvases. His work has been featured as well in numerous group exhibitions over the years, most notably at the inaugural exhibition of the [National Gallery of Canada](/source/National_Gallery_of_Canada) (1988), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1980), and the [Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal](/source/Mus%C3%A9e_d'art_contemporain_de_Montr%C3%A9al) (MAC) (1981, 1982, 2017, 2020 [curator: Mark Lanctôt]).{{cite web |title=Leopold Plotek |url=http://ccca.concordia.ca/cv/english/plotek-cv.html |website=ccca.concordia.ca |publisher=Concordia University, Montreal |access-date=2021-12-22}} His work is represented in major Canadian public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; the [Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec](/source/Mus%C3%A9e_national_des_beaux-arts_du_Qu%C3%A9bec), Québec City; and the Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa.{{cite web |last1=Woodley |first1=E. C. |title=Leopold Plotek: Campane|publisher=McClure Gallery, Montreal, 2013|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aPlotek/aplotek/1%2C1%2C4%2CB/frameset&FF=aplotek+leopold+1948&1%2C%2C4 |access-date=2021-12-23}} Plotek is represented by the Corkin Gallery in Toronto.{{cite web |title=Leopold Plotek |url=https://www.corkingallery.com/artists/leopold-plotek |website=www.corkingallery.com |publisher=Corkin Gallery, Toronto |access-date=2021-12-21}} He lives in Montreal and teaches at Concordia University in the Fine Arts, Studio faculty.{{cite web |title=Leopold Plotek |url=https://www.concordia.ca/finearts/studio-arts/faculty.html?fpid=leopold-plotek |website=www.concordia.ca |publisher=Concordia University, Montreal |access-date=2021-12-21}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==Bibliography== *{{cite book |last1=Nasgaard |first1=Roald |title=Abstract Painting in Canada |publisher=Douglas & McIntyre|date=2008|isbn=9781553653943 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-18mk0_QWjoC |accessdate=2021-12-22}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Plotek, Leopold}} Category:Artists from Quebec Category:Canadian abstract painters Category:1948 births Category:Canadian contemporary artists Category:20th-century Canadian painters Category:21st-century Canadian painters Category:Canadian male artists Category:Academic staff of Concordia University Category:Polish emigrants to Canada Category:Canadian art educators Category:Jewish Canadian painters Category:McGill University people Category:McGill University alumni Category:Sir George Williams University alumni Category:Living people Category:20th-century Canadian male artists Category:21st-century Canadian male artists Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Category:Jews and Judaism in Montreal --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Leopold Plotek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Plotek) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Plotek?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.