September 29–November 19, 2014
Opening reception: Thursday October 2, 4:30–7pm
Purchase College, SUNY
School of Art+Design
Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery, Visual Arts Building
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–5pm
“There is always something to say about what is real in our lives. From the time I was a boy, I have had an idea of the immensity of the world in which an artist should function. I always wanted to communicate in my work what is dearest to me. Not death, but life itself, and the greatness of being alive.” –Antonio Frasconi
The School of Art+Design at Purchase College, SUNY is pleased to present the exhibition Antonio Frasconi: Stand Up and Be Counted, which celebrates the work and life of internationally acclaimed artist, printmaker, and professor emeritus Antonio Frasconi, on view at the Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery September 29 thru November 19.
Antonio Frasconi (1919–2013) was committed to social and political issues in his artistic practice, as well as experimentation with the printed page. The exhibition features excerpts from four large-scale print projects including Los Infrahumanos (The Sub-Humans) (1945), Los Desaparecidos (The Disappeared) (1981–1989), The Enduring Struggle – Tom Joad’s America (1991), Let American Be America Again (1998), as well as a selection of landscapes, portraits, and graphic posters, simultaneously illustrating his mastery of the woodcut and his experiments in printmaking methods and traditions. Additional works are on view in several venues at Purchase College: portraits of musicians, public critics, and political figures are displayed in the Performing Arts Center; artist’s books are featured in the Library; and self-portraits in the Neuberger Museum of Art.
Antonio Frasconi was married to Leona Pierce (1921–2002) a printmaker, whom he met in 1945 at the New York Student League. Frasconi started teaching at Purchase College in 1973 and continued until 2009. He illustrated over 100 books, and his work is in prestigious collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Museum, Harvard Museum, National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian in Washington D.C., Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He represented Uruguay in the 1963 Venice Biennial, received a Guggenheim Foundation award in 1953, and won the Grand Prix in the 1960 Venice International Film Festival for The Neighboring Shore. In addition to his inclusion of numerous museum collections, Frasconi believed in the democratic nature of his work; thus, his woodcuts are produced en masse in children’s books, Doubleday/Anchor book covers, magazine covers, posters, author readings, music album covers, Christmas cards, and he was invited to design a stamp in 1963 to honor the centennial of the National Academy of Sciences.
Gallery talk with Ilse Schreiber-Noll on Antonio Frasconi as a woodcut artist
Monday, October 20, 3–4:30pm
Gallery talk with Miguel Frasconi, Ben Ortiz and Ilse Schreiber-Noll
Thursday, October 30, 3–4:30pm
Closing celebration, with readings from literary texts featured in Frasconi’s work and a concert by Miguel Frasconi
Thursday November 13, 4:30–7pm
Additional works can be viewed in the following locations:
Self-portraits
Neuberger Museum of Art
September 28–November 16
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday noon–5pm
Portraits
Performing Arts Center, Upper Lobby
August 25–December 19
Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–5pm
Published books
Purchase College Library
August 25–December 19
Hours: Monday–Thursday 8am–2am, Friday 8am–10pm, Saturday 10am–8pm, Sunday noon–2am
Student project in response to Let America Be America Again
1019A Gallery, Visual Arts Building
September 22–October 12
Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–5pm
School of the Arts exhibitions and programs in the Richard & Dolly Maass Gallery are supported, in part, by the Purchase College Foundation and through an endowment from Richard and Dolly Maass. Exhibition organized by Kirsten Nelson.
*Antonio Frasconi, page from The Enduring Struggle – Tom Joad’s America, 1991. 18 color woodcuts printed by offset lithography by John Mastracchio, 70 pages, 24 1/8 x 38 inches. Introduction by Leon F. Litwack. Published by artist. Image courtesy of The Estate of Antonio Frasconi.
