Near East (Pieta)

Mauricio Lasansky

Argentinian-born American printmaker Mauricio Lasansky studied with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in New York before beginning a long, influential career teaching printmaking at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

Lasansky, like most of the Atelier printmakers, was always curious, working and reworking his images, trying new techniques, experimenting wih sizes, shapes, materials, inks, etc.

This large, multi-technique color intaglio by Mauricio Lasansky was done in 1948 in Iowa. He pulled out all the stops for this composition using engraving, etching, soft-ground, electric stippler, grease ground, open-bite and burnishing. To accomplish this surreal image Lasansky used seven plates: six zinc color plates and one copper master plate printed in black.

"Pietà" means pity or compassion, and is a subject in Christian art and represents Mary sorrowfully contemplating the dead body of her son which she holds on her lap after his body was removed from the cross. This was Lasansky's second version of the subject in 1948.