Born in Poland, Kasyn immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1938 and received art training at the Winnipeg Museum of Fine Art before studying at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. A member of the Ontario Society of Artists, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, and recipient of the Gold Medal at the Annual Exhibition of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour of London, Ontario in 1966, Kasyn is best known for his paintings of housing, sometimes focusing upon the back of the homes. His works evoke a nostalgia in the authenticity of his depictions of the historic Late Edwardian style of homes in Canadian city centres. “Backyard with Fence, James Street, Ottawa” exemplifies the quintessential Canadiana of city housing built in Ontario at the turn of the twentieth century. Noted art dealer Emerich Kaspar explains: “Kasyn, a realist, finds himself drawn to the underside of life, and without being a sensationalist, elicits this by painting parts of the city, ignored by all those who live there.”
John Kasyn - Backyard With Fence, James Street, Ottawa | Cowley Abbott
