Antonio Frasconi      

American (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1919)

“Wounded Knee 1—Law & Order 1890”

woodcut

The child of Italian immigrants to South America, Frasconi was born in Argentina but relocated with his parents two weeks later to Montevideo, Uruguay, where his parents ran a restaurant. Apprenticed to a printer at the age of twelve, he began to publish cartoons in newspapers and experiment with woodcuts. In 1945, he went to New York to study at the Art Student’s League and the New School for Social Research, where he later taught for many years. Prolific in his production of woodcuts and lithographs as individual prints and as book illustration, Frasconi was extremely successful by the early 1950s. His “Twelve Fables of Aesop,” published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1954 was named one of the fifty books of the year by the Institute of Graphic Art. In 1960 he won the Grand Prize in the Venice Film Festival for his film based on scores of sequenced woodcuts entitled “The Neighboring Shore.” He was named to the membership of the National Academy of Art in 1969. He has produced over 100 illustrated books, including 40 children’s books and hundreds of prints that frequently address political themes.