Joseph Lacasse is an eminent abstract painter of the École de Paris. When in 1912 Kandinsky published his manifesto about abstract art, he was unaware that his theories had already been put into practice by the Belgian teenager Lacasse, a worker in the local stone quarries. Whereas Kandinsky reached abstraction through solid intellectual preparation, Lacasse found himself on the same road through pure intuition.

In 1925, Lacasse left his native Belgium to settle in Paris in the Impasse Ronsin in a studio next to that of Brancusi. Lacasse befriended Robert Delaunay whose art was crucial to his coloristic development. Soon he developed his own style which is characterised by his continued obsession with the depiction of the spectrum of light. His sensitive use of colour lends a vibrancy and energy to his work that makes the intangible visible.

Over the years, Lacasse continued his research into the refraction of sunlight through the prisms embedded in the minerals of stones. This, combined with his mystical beliefs drawn from the ‘Beatitudes’ of Thomas Aquinas, led him to search for a supernatural union with the Universe through his art. He strove for ultimate purity in his work which for him was a form of prayer.

The works of Lacasse are included in the following museums: Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 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.