Untitled, 1985

acrylic on stretched canvas

67 X 87 1/4 inches

JP 1

Untitled, 1983

Acrylic on Unstretched Canvas

76 X 108 inches

JP 7

Untitled

1970 -80

Acrylic on Canvas

35 x 51 inches

JP 8

Untitled, 1984

Acrylic on Unstretched canvas

90 X 68 1/2 inches

JP 9

Joseph Parker is a “visionary” artist.  He lived through some of the great twentieth-century tragedies before he finally found a harmonious resolution as expressed in his paintings.

            There is no simple explanation of Parker’s landscapes.  They are intended to be experienced as visions of a transcendental level of existence.  In his paintings, the sun is the source of all being, like a divine light fanning fantastically across the canvas, illuminating a purer world of calm water and exotic plants.

            Joseph Parker, originally Joseph Schwartz, was born in 1930 to Jewish parents of Strokof, Czechoslovakia.  After the Nazi invasion and fearing Nazi persecution, his family hid in a hillside bunker for six years.  In 1948 Parker fled Communist persecution and moved to Australia, where he became an accountant.

            In 1959, suffering from severe headaches, Parker sought a cure in hypnosis.  While under hypnosis, he experienced an out-of-body sensation where he saw, for the first time, his unique vision of a kind of transcendental, penetrating light, and he heard voices compelling him to paint his vision.  Parker was fascinated by this sudden experience, and he began to change his life.

            Almost completely a self-taught artist, Parker experimented with different painting styles.  In 1962, after becoming dissatisfied with the realist school of landscapes, he began painting from his imagination to describe his vision.  He left Australia and traveled through Europe and Asia learning to paint, finally settling in Mexico where he developed his panoramic landscapes.

            In the late 1960s or early 1970s, Parker moved to the United States, where he continues to paint.  His first public exhibition was in Chicago in 1978.  He now lives with his wife in secluded wilderness areas of California and Arizona.

            Joseph Parker is represented in the collections of: The Art Institute of Chicago; the First National Bank of Chicago; The Northern Trust Company, and others.

-From An American Landscape Collection: Views from the Heartland, catalog of the art collection of Kemper Funds, 1997