Joe Lasker (1919- ) was an American painter, illustrator, educator, and political activist. Born in Brooklyn, he won his first art prize at age eight and graduated from New York City's Cooper Union Art School in 1939. Like many of his fellow artists of the time, Lasker participated in the Federal Arts Project of the Works Project Administration, for which he designed and painted two post office murals. After a brief intermission to serve in World War II, Lasker continued his studies, winning two mural painting fellowships (1947, 1948) and two Prix de Rome fellowships (1950, 1951). By 1950 Life magazine named him one of the premier young artists in the country.
In 1963 Lasker expanded his repertoire to illustrate children's books; after ten years of this he began writing as well. His first book as author and illustrator, Mothers Can Do Anything was published in 1972. His second, Merry Ever After, a lavish pictorial exploration of a noble wedding and a peasant wedding in medieval Europe, won numerous accolades including the American Library Association's Notable Children's Book and the New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year and Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year, and received an Art Books for Children citation from the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Public Library.
Lasker served as Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his work has been exhibited in galleries across the United States including the Corcoran Gallery, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
From the guide to the Joe Lasker Papers, 1934-1969, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
