FAA Opening Reception - "Selections from it's Permanent Collection"
The Fairfield Art Association is featuring "Selections from it's Permanent Collection" in the Main Gallery at the FA&CC, with an opening reception from 6-8pm on Friday, September 2.
Included in the exhibit is a newly acquired intaglio print titled "Lady in Blue" by internationally known maestro of printmaking Maruricio Lasansky. The over 6 foot tall by 3 ft wide, limited edition print featuring a dog along side of a woman dressed in blue was produced in 1967. It joins three other Lasansky prints in the FAA collection. Ironically this print and another titled "Artist Approaching Middle Age" were both featured in a FAA exhibit in 1969 and proclaimed "one of the most outstanding art exhibits in the state of Iowa" at the time.
During that exhibit, FAA purchased the Lasansky self portrait and Iowa State Bank purchased "Lady in Blue", and just this year donated it back to FAA after 53 years. The third FAA owned Lasansky is "Boy with Burro" and was presented by the Iowa Arts Council in 1972 in recognition of individuals providing artworks on loan for exhibits, which locally was Fairfield Dr. Gene Egli. Egli was a founding member of the FAA and designated our local organization as the recipient of the Lasansky print.
Lasansky was born in 1914 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Lasansky studied at the Superior School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires before moving to New York in 1943. The artist accepted a teaching position at the University of Iowa in 1945, where he taught until 1984 and helped to establish the first MFA program in the United States. He died in 2012 in Iowa City, IA. His works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.
Lasansky was most known for his innovative use of drypoint, intaglio, and multiple plates to produce richly worked portraits, figurative abstractions, depictions of public and historical figures, scenes of farmers, and images of the Holocaust. Lasansky was influenced by the work of Francisco Goya, El Greco, Stanley William Hayter, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall .
The famed printmaker had six children, all artists in their individual fields, and now his grandchildren are becoming recognized all well. Son, Tomás Lasansky and his wife Charlie have been lifelong artists living and working in Iowa City and are currently exhibiting in a Cedar Rapids Gallery.
The FAA is showing 5 other Iowa artists work from its permanent collection, all accomplished and widely recognized. Included are "painterly" artist Anne Hovey who lived in Fairfield for a few years then Des Moines, Arthur Benoit a watercolorist from Marsalltown, Ray Frederick well-known for his textured acrylics, M. J. Kitzman was known for his thick oil and painting knife creations of human struggle and torment from Ames. Lastly is a smaller work by Stan Hess who was professor of art at Drake University from 1951-85 recognized for his dry, graphic surreal style. Each artist has interesting descriptive information beside their works exhibited in the Main Gallery.
The FAA Hallway Gallery features pastel art works by member artist Jane Shank. And final bidding ends this evening at 8:30 PM for the Silent Auction of the summer art installation "Windows", with bid sheets in the Main Gallery. All proceeds support the FAA and creators of the windows.
