SOUTH BEND, IN.- Mauricio Lasansky was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1914 where he learned the art of printmaking at a young age. By the age of twenty-two he had already become the director of the Free Fine Arts School in Villa Maria, Cordoba, Argentina. Seven years later in 1943, he was offered a Guggenheim Fellowship to come to the United States and study the print collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During this decade, printmaking was revitalized to the status of a fine art and Lasansky worked at creating new methods and techniques for the craft, as well as developing new subject matter. He is best known for his large, expressive, and colorful prints that include the full spectrum of graphic techniques including etching, drypoint, aquatint, and engraving.

Because of his devotion and exploration in the craft, Lasansky is considered to be one of the "Fathers of 20th Century American Printmaking," and has continued his legacy through a score of students to whom he taught his methods and philosophies during his time as a professor at the University of Iowa. Lasansky has received a total of five Guggenheim Fellowships, six honorary Doctorate of Arts degrees and several more prizes and honors, including his work being represented in more than one hundred public collections.

Mauricio Lasansky: Great Thinkers (Who Have Changed Modern Thought for the Better) exhibits a series of Mauricio Lasansky's portrait prints of eleven historical figures who have influenced him throughout his life. They range from portraits of Darwin to Abraham Lincoln to Einstein, all expressions of humanistic ideals. Like Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Picasso, Lasansky has found portraiture to be a particularly inspirational source. Represented in a graphic style, the portraits are engaging, reflective, and analytical, and combine the facts, myths, and history behind each character.

The exhibition is a gift from Mr. Joseph A. Bisignano, Notre Dame alumnus, 1958.