Woman with Lute

Mauricio Lasansky was renowned for his works on paper. He studied printmaking with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York. He later produced over 260 editions and taught printmaking at the University of Iowa. Because of his productivity and skill with printmaking techniques, Time Magazine declared that he was termed "the nation's most influential printmaker" in 1962. Working largely in a figurative style, Lasansky portrayed the humanity of his subjects, who he rendered with a great degree of empathy. Lasansky lived in NYC while working at Atelier 17 and frequently visited the Met Museum. He spent a great deal of time in the Department of Drawings and Prints and meticulously studied the print collection. Later, he drew from this experience and made several prints that referred to elements from the works he had analyzed earlier. Lasansky combined a deep knowledge of printmaking and print history, with experimentation to radically rethink what was possible with intaglio.