Mauricio Lasansky

Mauricio Leib Lasansky (October 12, 1914 – April 2, 2012) 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.

Biography The son of Eastern European Jews, Lasansky was born on 12 October 1914 in Buenos Aires. 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, 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.

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.

In the 1960s, Time magazine dubbed him "the nation's most influential printmaker." Susan Hale Kemenyffy was among his pupils.

Lasansky wed in 1937, bringing his family with him to the United States at the time of his second Guggenheim Fellowship, in 1944. As of Lasansky's death in 2012, the images were on exhibit at the University of Iowa Museum as a long-term loan.

Honors and recognition 1943: Guggenheim Fellowship 1944: Guggenheim Fellowship 1945: Guggenheim Fellowship 1953: Guggenheim Fellowship 1959: 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