Lila Oliver Asher

Lila Oliver Asher (November 15, 1921 – February 11, 2021) was an American artist and printmaker. She is best known for her printmaking, primarily with linocut and woodcut, and her subjects spanned from religious themes, myths, musicians, and mothers. Asher also explored a variety of mediums including watercolor, sculpture, drawing, portraiture, wrought iron, murals, stained glass windows, and published book about her experiences as an artist in World War II. She explored these themes and mediums over the expanse of her long career as they connected with her experiences in life.

Life

Early years Lila was born Lila Estelle Oliver on November 15, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She started drawing as a child and received her first set of oil paints as a birthday gift from her parents when she was seven. At the age of 12, Lila began studying with Joseph Grossman and started painting lessons with Frank B. A. Linton, a protégé of Thomas Eakins while attending classes at Fleischer Art Memoria l from 1933 to 1938. She was also a pupil of Prof. Gonippo Raggi and held a four-year scholarship to the now University of the Arts. She attended in 1943, during World War II, where the skills and abilities she showed with sketching would lead to the job of sketching soldiers at military hospitals and Stage Door Canteens through the USO.

Middle years After the war, in 1946, Asher moved to Washington, D.C., to establish her studio where she created advertisements, sculptures, paintings, and prints. To supplement her art, she took illustration jobs advertising for Charles Schwartz Jewelers and upscale men’s clothiers Lewis & Thos. Saltz. Since 1991 she had been Professor Emerita and continued to work in her studio before her death in 2021.

Death and relatives

Asher died of complications from surgery for a perforated ulcer on February 11, 2021, at a care center in Washington at the age of 99. Asher even describes her book as "a patchwork of stories about the many soldiers and sailors who came back from World War II less than whole".

In addition, the Online Archive of California (OAC) has a collection that “contains personal correspondence to and from Lila Oliver Asher, as well as sketches done by Asher, military realia, and a series of thank you letters to Asher."

Career achievements

Permanent collections

Nat. Museum of American Art, Wash. D.C. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C. Howard Univ. Gallery of Art, Wash., D.C. Barnett Aden Collection, Tampa, Fla. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Va. B'nai B'rith, Wash. D.C. City of Wolfsburg, Germany David Lloyd Kreeger Collection, Wash. D.C. Superior Court of the Dist. of Columbia, Wash., D.C. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Serv., Wash., D.C. Center for Research in Education of the Disadvantaged, Jerusalem, Israel Embassy of the U.S., Tel Aviv, Israel Embassy of the U.S., Mexico City, Mexico Fisk Univ., Nashville, Tenn. Montgomery County Collection of Contemporary Prints, Montgomery County, Md. Nat. Council on Art in Jewish Life; American Jewish Congress, New York, N.Y. Georgetown Univ., Wash., D.C. Nat. Mus. of History, Taipei, Taiwan Kastrupgårdsamlingen Kunst Museum, Denmark Nat. Museum of Women in the Arts, Wash. D.C. Jundt Museum, Gonzaga Univ. Spokane, Wash.

In addition to these permanent collections Asher's work is also in private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

Solo exhibitions

1951 - Barnett Aden Gallery, Wash., D.C. 1955 - William C. Blood Gallery, Phila., Pa. 1957 - Arts Club, Wash., D.C. 1959 - Collectors Gallery, Wash., D.C. 1960 - Garrett Park Public Library, Garrett Park, Md. 1963 - Burr Galleries, New York, N.Y. 1965 - Gallery Two Twenty Two, El Paso, Tex. 1968 - Thomson Gallery, New York, N.Y. 1969 - B'nai B'rith Headquarters, Wash., D.C. 1970 - Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. 1972 - Green-Field Gallery, El Paso, Tex. 1972 - Northwestern Michigan College 1972 - Franz Bader Gallery, retrospective, Wash., D.C. 1973 - American Club, Tokyo, Japan 1974 - USIS Bombay, India 1974 - Iran-America Soc., Teheran, Iran 1974 - Fisk Univ., retrospective, Nashville, Tenn. 1975 - USIS Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, India 1975 - USIS Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, Pakistan 1976 - USIS Ankara and Adana, Turkey 1976 - Via Gambaro Gallery, Wash., D.C. 1978 - Gallery Kormendy, Alexandria, Va. 1978 - Howard Univ., retrospective 1979 - Washington Hebrew Cong., Wash., D.C. 1980 - Northeastern Univ., Boston, Mass. 1982 - Nat. Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan 1982 - Kastrupgårdsamlingen Kunst Museum, Denmark 1985 - Gallaudet Univ. Wash., D.C. 1986 - Mickelson Gallery, Wash., D.C. 1986 - UCLA, Los Angeles, Cal. 1987 - National Press Club, Washington., DC 1988 - Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. 1991 - Howard Univ. Retrospective, Wash. D.C. 1992 - Cosmos Club, Wash., D.C. 1992 - Rockville Art Mansion, Rockville, Md. 1992 - Georgetown Univ. Wash., D.C 1992 - Hood College, Frederick, Md. 1993 - Nat. Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. 1997 - Goldman Gallery 1997 - Jewish Community Center 1998 - Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C. 1999 - Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, Prince George's County, Md. 2001 - Strathmore Hall Arts Center, North Bethesda, Md. 2009 - Henry J. Stimson Center (Institute for International Peace and Security) Washington, D.C. 2010 - Ratner Museum, Bethesda, Md. 2010 - The Washington Arts Club, Washington, D.C. 2011 - The Printmakers Gallery, Silver Spring Md. 2012 - "American Impressions" contemporary printmaking exchange Shanghai, China 2013 - Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Group exhibitions Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Phila, Pa. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Wash., D.C. Howard Univ., Wash., D.C. Pan American Union, Wash., D.C. Library of Congress, Wash., D.C. Univ. of Maine, Orono, Me. Baltimore Mus. of Art, Baltimore, Md. Philadelphia College of Art, Phila., Pa. Riverside Mus., New York, N.Y. Arts Club, Wash., D.C. Rochester Mus. Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, N.Y. Garden Pier, Atlantic City, N.J. Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, Va. Longwood College, Va. Rockville Civic Center, Rockville, Md. New York World Fair, New York, N.Y. U.S. Department of State, Wash., D.C. Univ. of Illinois Krammet Mus., Champaign, Ill. Woodmere Gallery, Phila., Pa. Nat. Collection of Fine Arts, Wash., D.C. Smithsonian Institution, Wash., D.C. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. Virginia Museum, Richmond, Va. Sweet Briar College, Sweetbriar, Va. Dimock Gallery, Geo. Washington Univ. Wash., D.C. Studio Museum, Harlem, New York, N.Y. Univ. of Texas, Auburn, Tex. Appalachian State Univ. N.C. Montgomery College, Montgomery County, Md. International Monetary Fund, Wash., D.C. Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, Ga.