Estudio para un Retrato de A.B. is a drypoint printed in Argentina in 1942 by Argentine born, American artist Mauricio Lasansky. It is pencil signed, titled, dated, and dedicated “A M. Brandt y señora” in the lower margin. The plate was printed twice by Lasansky, first in sienna and then in black ink. This impression was printed on buff wove paper and the platemark measures 10-1/4 x 10 inches. The references are Thein/Lasansky 50 and Zigrosser 50. The edition is listed as 6.
Carl Zigrosser wrote of Lasansky’s early intaglios created in Argentina: “The cultural climate of Argentina at that time had, one gathers, a provincial flavor. There was no native graphic tradition to build on, as there was, for example, in Mexico. ...Lasansky’s prints …stood apart by reason of his technical virtuosity and his experimental approach. Although he experimented with etching, relief etching and linoleum cut, the bulk of his work was executed in drypoint. They display an extraordinary technical facility; he can suggest the most delicate tones and nuances by this primarily linear medium. …They are romantic and poetic compositions of extreme sensibility and refinement.”
Maurico Lasansky, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1914. He attended the Superior School of Fine Arts in 1933 and his first solo exhibition was held in 1935 at Fort General Roca. In 1936, Lasansky directed the Free Fine Arts School in Villa Maria, Cordoba. Francis Henry Taylor, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, met Lasansky in 1941 and arranged for him to travel to New York on a Guggenheim Fellowship. In New York, he worked at Atelier 17 expanding his printmaking prowess.
Hired by the University of Iowa in 1946, Lasansky renovated the university’s printmaking department, making Iowa a germinal school for printmaking, and he was made a full professor of art in 1948. In 1960, the Ford Foundation sponsored his retrospective and, in 1975, the University of Iowa honored him with a retrospective accompanied by a catalogue raisonné by John Thein and Phillip Lasansky.
Lasansky received five Guggenheim Fellowships, six honorary doctoral degrees and numerous special honors. His work is held in the collections of virtually every major museum in the United States.
Besides his extensive body of work, Lanasky’s enduring legacy is his profound impact on printmaking in the United States. For the Lasansky catalogue raisonné, Carl Zigrosser wrote the foreword in a form of a letter to the artist. In it he remarked: “By all accounts you were and are a mighty good teacher. You never sought to impose your style on your students or make ‘Little Lasanskys’ out of them. You were sympathetic and understanding. By introducing them to the past and present in printmaking, you gave them a wide range of choice, and helped them to find their own personal vision. Above all you communicated your enthusiasm, and inculcated a dedication to printmaking almost as great as your own.”
