Background
She was born Paraskeva Plistik, the daughter of Avdey Plistik and Olga Fedorevna, and, after finishing school, she worked as a clerk in a shoe factory and took evening classes at the Petrograd Academy of Fine Arts.
She was born Paraskeva Plistik, the daughter of Avdey Plistik and Olga Fedorevna, and, after finishing school, she worked as a clerk in a shoe factory and took evening classes at the Petrograd Academy of Fine Arts.
Prior to the October 1917 revolution she studied with Savely Seidenberg and at the Free Art Studios, which had previously been known as the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, under Vasily Shukhayev and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1918–1921).
Clark was introduced to Doctor Norman Bethune in 1936 by Pegi Nicol MacLeod (1904–1949), art editor of the Canadian Forum from 1935-1936. From this point Clark became active in the Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy and not long after painted one of her most significant works: in 1937. Her work was to become one of the few politically influenced works to survive the era.
In, Clark creates a seemingly innocent scene of street entertainers "to express her outrage at the recently reported brutal killing" of five striking steelworkers by Chicago police in the summer of 1937.
The painting was inspired by newspaper reports and she chose to adapt the story of Petrushka (the Peter puppet and symbol of suffering humanity within Russian tradition) to a North American context. Clark felt passionately about the role and responsibility of the artist: "Those who give their lives, their knowledge and their time to social struggle have the right to expect great help from the artist.
And I cannot imagine a more inspiring role than that which the artist is asked to play for the defence and advancement of civilization". She was appointed by the National Gallery of Canada to record the activities of the Women"s Divisions of the Armed Forces during World World War II and then later participated in many group shows between 1951 and 1956.
She held four large solo shows comprising the University of Toronto (1952), two in 1956 at McGill University and Hart House, University of Toronto respectively and at the New Laing Gallery (1959).
Her work is owned by many private collectors and the aforementioned institutions. Clark was the subject of a 1982 film by the National Film Board of Canada, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Lady. She died in Toronto at the age of 87.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts]
She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.