{{Short description|Argentine artist and educator}} {{Infobox artist | name = Mauricio Lasansky | image = Photo of Mauricio Lasansky.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Mauricio Leib Lasansky | birth_date = {{birth date|1914|10|12}} | birth_place = [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2012|4|2|1914|10|12}} | death_place = [[Iowa City, Iowa]] | spouse = {{marriage|Emilia Barragán Lasansky | 1937}} | field = [[Printmaking]] and [[Drawing]] | training = | movement = [[American modernism]] | works = ''[[The Nazi Drawings]]'' | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = Five [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] (1943, 1944, 1945, 1953, 1964) | website = {{URL|lasanskyart.com/}} }}
'''Mauricio Leib Lasansky''' (October 12, 1914 – April 2, 2012)<ref name="NYT" /> was an Argentine artist and educator known both for his advanced techniques in [[intaglio (printmaking)|intaglio]] [[printmaking]] and for a series of 33 pencil drawings from the 1960s titled "The Nazi Drawings."<ref name=NYT>{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/arts/design/mauricio-lasansky-master-printmaker-dies-at-97.html?_r=0 | title = Mauricio Lasansky, Master Printmaker, Dies at 97 | first = Margalit | last = Fox | date = 7 April 2012 | access-date = 15 July 2015 | work = New York Times}}</ref><ref name="Gerber2010">{{cite book|last=Gerber|first=John C.|title=A Pictorial History of the University of Iowa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlAD1NbU3-YC&pg=PA202|date=13 September 2010|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=978-1-60938-023-6|page=202}}</ref> Lasansky, who migrated to and became a citizen of the United States, established the program in printmaking at the [[University of Iowa]], which offered the first Master of Fine Arts program in the field in the United States. [[Sotheby's]] identifies him as one of the fathers of modern printmaking.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title = Mauricio Lasansky the Artist and Teacher on Sotheby's Blog|url = http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/auction-essays/African-Art/2014/04/mauricio-lasansky-th.html|website = www.sothebys.com|access-date = 2015-07-16|archive-date = 2015-09-24|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924144054/http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/auction-essays/African-Art/2014/04/mauricio-lasansky-th.html|url-status = dead}}</ref>
==Biography== The son of [[Ashkenazi Jews|Eastern European Jews]], Lasansky was born on 12 October 1914 in [[Buenos Aires]].<ref name=NYT/> He studied printmaking and engraving from his Polish father, who had made a living in those fields. He displayed early promise, showing favorably at the Mutulidad Fine Arts Exhibition with an honorable mention at 16 and a prize at 17 for sculpture.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url = http://www.artic.edu/sites/default/files/libraries/pubs/1960/AIC1960MLasansky_comb.pdf|title = Mauricio Lasansky|date = 1960|website = The Art Institute Chicago|publisher = The American Federation of Arts|last = Zigrosser|first = Carl}}</ref> He entered the Superior School of Fine Arts in his hometown in 1933 and later met young Argentine [[Luis Barragán (painter)]]. Three years later, Lasansky began his career as director of the Free Fine Arts School in [[Villa María, Córdoba|Villa María]], Argentina. Through school and the decade he held this directorship, he exhibited extensively, culminating in a solo retrospective exhibition at the Galleria Muller in Buenos Aires in 1943.{{cn|date=April 2024}}
Lasansky relocated to New York City in 1943 on the first of five Guggenheim Fellowships and chose to remain in and become a citizen of the United States for political reasons in spite of a lack of financial resources and challenges with the English language. In 1945, he took his first position at the University of Iowa, as a visiting lecturer for graphic arts. Within three years, he would become a full professor and ultimately would establish its program in printmaking, offering the first Master of Fine Arts program in the field in the United States.<ref name="NYT" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title = Fine Arts Collection: Mauricio Lasansky|url = http://www.luther.edu/fine-arts/Artists/lasansky-mauricio/|website = luther.edu|access-date = 2015-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717045449/https://www.luther.edu/fine-arts/Artists/lasansky-mauricio/|archive-date=July 17, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In the 1960s, [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] dubbed him "the nation's most influential printmaker."<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> He remained with the program until his retirement in 1984, whereafter he continued as a practicing artist.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Mauricio Lasansky|website=Oxford Reference|access-date=April 14, 2024|url = http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100052252}}</ref> [[Susan Hale Kemenyffy]] was among his pupils.<ref name="HellerHeller2013">{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}}</ref>
Lasansky wed in 1937, bringing his family with him to the United States at the time of his second Guggenheim Fellowship, in 1944.<ref name="NYT" /><ref name=":0" />
== Work == Lasansky's work in his Argentinian period was primarily drypoint, with additional forays in [[etching]], [[relief etching]] and linoleum cut.<ref name=":0" /> Lacking exposure to other printmakers, he developed innovative approaches to copper plate printmaking.<ref name=":1" /> He dedicated his first several months in the United States to studying the extensive print collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], experimenting with modern art techniques in his own work at [[Atelier 17]] in New York, absorbing techniques in intaglio and investigating particularly the work of [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], who was a major influence.<ref name=":0" /> Other influences cited include [[El Greco]], [[Francisco Goya|Goya]], [[Amedeo Modigliani|Modigliani]], [[Marc Chagall|Chagall]] and [[Stanley William Hayter]]. He was an innovator in the creation of large metal-plate artwork, sometimes combining more than 50 plates to produce a single image.<ref name=":1" />
In addition to his printmaking, Lasansky is known for the series "The Nazi Drawings". Produced between 1961 and 1966, these 33 drawings were inspired by what Lasansky described as the "unleashing of brutality" of the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]].<ref name=":1" /> The series was first exhibited in the [[Whitney Museum of American Art|Whitney Museum of Art]] for its opening in 1967. The drawings, on regular paper with graphite pencil and watercolor washes meant to suggest blood, portrayed the victims and perpetrators of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but also the bystanders, whom Lasansky felt strongly bore a share of responsibility.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Drawing from Life|last1 = Brown|first1 = Clint|publisher = Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers|year = 1992|isbn = 0030289343|pages = 18|last2 = McLean|first2 = Cheryl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Jewish Art in America: An Introduction|last = Baigell|first = Matthew|publisher = Rowman & Littlefield|year = 2007|isbn = 978-0742546417|pages = 93}}</ref> As of Lasansky's death in 2012, the images were on exhibit at the [[University of Iowa Museum of Art|University of Iowa Museum]] as a long-term loan.<ref name="NYT" />
== Honors and recognition == * 1943: Guggenheim Fellowship * 1944: Guggenheim Fellowship * 1945: Guggenheim Fellowship * 1953: Guggenheim Fellowship * 1959: [[Honorary degree|Honorary Doctorate]], Iowa Wesley College * 1963: Guggenheim Fellowship * 1969: Honorary Doctorate, [[Pacific Lutheran University]] * 1979: Honorary Doctorate, [[Carleton College]] * 1980: Distinguished Teaching of Art Award, [[College Art Association]] * 1983: Honorary Award in Arts & Humanities, Commission for the Aging * 1985: Honorary Doctorate, [[Coe College]] * 1990: Academician, National Academy of Arts & Design, New York * 1999: Iowa Award, 14th Recipient
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.lasanskyart.com/art/collections/nazidrawings.shtml The Nazi Drawings Online] * ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VmsgC53nA Inside the Image]'', documentary biography by the University of Iowa
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasansky, Mauricio}} [[Category:1914 births]] [[Category:2012 deaths]] [[Category:American people of Argentine-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Argentine emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:Argentine people of Polish-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Argentine printmakers]] [[Category:Artists from Buenos Aires]] [[Category:Modern printmakers]] [[Category:University of Iowa faculty]] [[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]] [[Category:20th-century Argentine Jews]] [[Category:20th-century American Jews]] [[Category:Jewish Argentine artists]] [[Category:Jewish American artists]] [[Category:20th-century American printmakers]]