Antonio Tascona RCA was a Canadian artist of Italian heritage, best known for his abstract constructions featuring metallic panels made of aluminum, steel, resin, and industrial paints and lacquers. Tascona's employment in the aircraft industry as a technician taught him the techniques used in his mature work featuring geometric abstraction. His work hangs in numerous public institutions in and throughout Canada. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1996. In 1946, Tascona enrolled in the Winnipeg School of Art through the Department of Veterans' Affairs. His instructor Joe Plaskett introduced him to Hans Hofmann's theories on abstraction. After receiving his diploma, he continued his education at the University of Manitoba School of Art and was there exposed to other modernist movements such as Vorticism. In 1953 Tascona began work as a technician for Trans-Canada Airlines where he developed his skills and interest in working with a variety of industrial techniques and materials including a fascination with aluminum, high-grade paints, lacquers and enamels. This formation of interest extended to his brother's auto-body garage, where Tascona became interested in the use of car paint, borrowing paint chips and supplies for use in his own studio. In 1961, Tascona moved to Montreal where he became acquainted with the works of Les plasticiens artists such as Guido Molinari and Claude Tousignant for what he called their "direct, more mathematical, more geometric approach.” In 1965, Tascona was introduced to the theories of Constructivism by William Townsend. However Tascona was not interested in the explicitly political elements inherent to Constructivism. Nonetheless Tascona was inspired by Tatlin's prediction that the art of the future would be synthesized with principles of technology and construction.