An eminent abstract painter of the École de Paris, Jospeh Lacasse was born into a destitute working-class family in Tournai, Belgium. His artistic vocation was first outlined at the local stone quarries where he worked as a young teenager. From as early as 1910, in white chalk on black paper, Lacasse studied and depicted the angles of the quarry stones and the light they refracted and reflected.

In 1925, Lacasse left his native Belgium to settle Paris in the Impasse Ronsin, in a studio next to Constantin Brancusi. Lacasse had initially trained as a painter of religious scenes. However, with Brancusi as his neighbour, he was inspired to revisit his teenage interest in light and the composition of stone. During 1927-1928, Lacasse met Robert and Sonia Delaunay whose influence on his colour-palette would be profound. With their continued encouragement, Lacasse soon found his own unique style of abstraction.

At the onset of the Second World War, Lacasse left Paris for Britain. Upon his return to Paris in 1946, after having spent the war years in Britain, Lacasse had been overshadowed by Serge Poliakoff. The latter admitted having learnt much from Lacasse during the late 1930s, when he was a frequent visitor to Lacasse's Montparnasse gallery 'L' Équipe'. What characterises the work of Lacasse is the intense, continuous vibration of light communicated through colour in his works. It runs over the surface, his compositions humming with bright energy. Lacasse achieved his aims of turning light into matter made visible.

The works of Lacasse are included in the following museums: Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée national d'art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Musée de Tournai, Tournai, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Eilat Museum, Eilat, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.