Mauricio and Tomás Lasansky: Father and Son
Jan 17, 2015 - Mar 5, 2015 | Snite Museum of Art
O’Shaughnessy Gallery West
January 17-March 15, 2015
This exhibition organized by the Snite Museum of Art will feature the art of Tomás Lasansky and his deceased father, the renowned and influential American printmaker Mauricio Lasansky.
Mauricio Lasansky (1914–2014) is one of the fathers of twentieth-century American printmaking, having taught printmaking at the University of Iowa for forty years. His work can be found in private collections and in over 140 museums nationwide, as well as in Europe and in Latin America. During his long career he had more than 250 solo shows in thirty-five countries and he received six honorary doctorate of arts degrees.
While his son Tomás Lasansky (b. 1957) studied at the University of Iowa (B.F.A., 1979; M.A., 1983; and M.F.A., 1984), his art education began much earlier. As a five-year-old, he made drawings depicting his parents’ African art collection, worked in clay and wax, and made prints alongside his father. The youngest in a family of visual, literary, and performing artists, he grew up mingling with artists and visiting art museums. Indeed, Tomás Lasansky asserts that he was raised in a museum—a reference to his parents’ extensive collection of art from many cultures. Tomás Lasansky’s work is deeply influenced by his classical, academic training—one could argue that he served a traditional apprenticeship with a master artist. He credits his father with helping him “to understand what it is to be a professional artist.”
Artworks featured in this exhibition are gifts and loans from ND alumnus Joseph A. Bisignano, Jr. ’59, as well as artworks lent by Kelly and Swen Larson, Maureen and James Mondanaro, Diane and Kenneth Williamson, and Tomás Lasansky.
Dr. and Mrs. John J. Callaghan, Mr. and Mrs. James Cownie, Dr. and Mrs. Michael J. Richards, and Mr. Joseph A. Bisignano, Jr. ’59 made generous contributions towards the exhibition catalog. The Humana Foundation Endowment for American Art funded exhibition installation and publicity.
To read the exhibition review by South Bend Tribune Correspondent Evan Gillespie click here.