Four prints by famed Iowa artist Mauricio Lasansky will be installed at Wartburg College Friday, April 13, as the college enhances its art collection.
Lasansky’s Holocaust-themed series, “For An Eye An Eye,” using a copper printmaking process and a style that pays homage to Picasso, was donated by Waverly native William Fruehling and will be installed at a 4:30 p.m. ceremony on the third floor of Vogel Library.
Phillip Lasansky, the son of the artist; Fruehling; Wartburg President Darrel Colson, and Barbara Fedeler, professor and chair of the art department, will participate in the dedication, which is open to the public.
Lasansky, who died April 2 at age 97 in Iowa City, left his native Argentina in 1943 to come to the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship. He taught at the University of Iowa School of Fine Arts from 1944-86, where he succeeded Grant Wood as department head. His works are on display in nearly every major museum in the United States and Europe
The installation coincides with a decision by the college to expand accessibility and visibility of its existing collection, including a Rembrandt and works by students, alumni and friends of the college.
“Integrating art into the living and learning spaces on campus will expose students to ongoing rich encounters with works utilizing a variety of media,” Colson said.
“The Wartburg story is reflected in many of the works as a cultural history, and also in works that emphasize the college’s historical connection with Eisenach, Germany, home of the Wartburg Castle.”
Colson added that Wartburg plans on establishing a fund to maintain and display the current art inventory, while acquiring new pieces.
Fruehling is pleased to contribute to that effort.
“What better way to start than with Iowa’s most prominent artist, Mauricio Lasansky?” he said. “It’s long been my desire to share the collection with others, and what better community to introduce and share it with than the students and visitors at Wartburg?”
Lasansky is known for “The Nazi Drawings,” examining the brutality of the Third Reich. He worked almost exclusively in the intaglio printmaking process, involving etching and engraving on a flat piece of copper.
“For An Eye An Eye” uses that process, while focusing on the Holocaust and dehumanization of war against the backdrop of Hammurabi’s retaliatory and primitive Babylonian code of ethics. Each print begins with the same composition, but adds more voices.
Lasansky, created more than 200 prints, while raising printmaking to a meaningful 20th century art form. He received a record five Guggenheim Fellowships and the Iowa Award, the highest honor bestowed by a governor on a citizen of the state.
Fruehling attended Wartburg before continuing his studies at the University of Iowa, where he graduated in 1961. While taking a design course, he developed an appreciation for Lasansky’s work.
“I walked by a studio each day that had marvelous works of art, all in various stages of completion. It was Mauricio Lasansky’s studio,” he recalled. “An early image of his work that I will never forget was ‘Boy with a Burro.’ I wanted to buy the print so badly, but with a meager student income it was not to be.”
But Fruehling, who would embark on a 50-year career in advertising and marketing, which included his own San Diego agency, Fruehling Communications, eventually acquired more than 30 Lasansky prints.
His donation to the college honors his parents, W.G. and Marion Fruehling who were associated with Wartburg for more than 40 years. His father was head of the psychology department, and his mother taught business classes and managed the bookstore.