Sale 213 Lot 442

JOSEPH MICHAEL PLAVCAN
American, 1908-1981
Fisherman
Watercolor on board. Signed lower right. Framed. Not examined out of frame.

$150-250

ARTIST PROFILE: Joseph Michael Plavcan (1908–1981) was an influential American painter and educator based in Erie, Pennsylvania, whose career was defined by a commitment to color and artistic evolution. After studying under Eugene Iverd and attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Plavcan received a Cresson Traveling Scholarship to Europe, an experience that shaped his lifelong aesthetic and led to early acclaim, including juried recognition from Henri Matisse. Though he spent decades teaching vocational art at Erie Technical High School—mentoring future luminaries like Richard Anuszkiewicz—his personal style underwent a dramatic transformation in the 1960s. Moving from representational landscapes to a hard-edged, geometric style inspired by his own students, Plavcan viewed his artistic shift not as a regression, but as a continuous "building process" that integrated new information into his work until the end of his life.