Artist.
Born at St. Boniface in 1926, son of Annunziato San Fillipo (1887-1944) and Sebastiano Tascona (1874-1943), brother of Samuel Jack “Sam” Tascona, working in the aerospace industry early in his career fuelled his fascination with experimentation, materials and precision. He was one of the first artists in Canada to paint on aluminum. He also painted on canvas, cast resin sculpture, produced silkscreen prints, and ink drawings. Other artists marvelled at his continuous range of productivity. He received many public commissions including the Centennial Concert Hall murals, the Millennium Library Reading Courtyard sculpture, stabiles in the lobbies of the Manitoba Law Courts, the St. Boniface Research Hospital and the Freshwater Institute. Few Canadian artists have been honoured by a permanent retrospective of their work such as his at the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba. The Winnipeg Art Gallery mounted a retrospective of his 50-year oeuvre in 2001. He was the only Manitoban included in the 2005 National Gallery of Canada exhibition.
He received the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977) and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002). He was awarded an honorary LLD from the University of Winnipeg (1994) and was made a member of the Order of Canada (1996). His works can be found in permanent collections across Canada including the National Gallery of Canada, the Confederation Centre, the Canada Council Art Bank, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Glenbow Museum, the Norman Mackenzie Gallery and the Greater Victoria Art Gallery as well as numerous corporate and private collections. His archives are held by the University of Regina and digital images are available at the web site of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. A junior baseball and hockey player, he was inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and his 1948 Brandon Grays Baseball team was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
He died in Winnipeg on 28 May 2006.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 3 June 2006.
We thank Lois Braun for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 8 July 2024
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