Antonio Frasconi (28 April 1919 in Montevideo, Uruguay – 8 January 2013 in Norwalk, CT, USA) was an Uruguayan - American visual artist, best known for his

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s. He was raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, and lived in the United States since 1945.

Life

Antonio Rudolfo Frasconi was born 28 April 1919 on a boat between Argentina & Uruguay and was raised in Montevideo, Uruguay. He had parents of Italian descent. They had moved to South America during World War I. Frasconi's mother managed a restaurant whilst his father was frequently unemployed. Frasconi frequently quotes his mother and her view of his talents. He said that his mother talked of art at the church where she was brought up as if it had been done by God rather than man. She felt that if Frasconi had been born with a gift, he would already be a famous artist rather than working like her each day. His mother worked in the restaurant, cared for Frasconi and his two sisters and still found time to be a seamstress By the age of twelve, he was learning a trade at a printers after abandoning a course at

Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...

. During his teenage years he admired

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engraving ...

and

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...

, whilst indulging in creating caricatures of political figures. During the war, an exhibition of impressionism and post-impression was organised by the French in Latin America. Artists such as

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...

and Cézanne captured his imagination. However it was the woodcuts of

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

that he was attracted to most. Frasconi says he became intrigued by American writers and musicians. He would hear Jazz on the radio and read American authors like

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

. Frasconi moved to the United States in 1945 at the end of World War II. He worked as a gardener and as a guard at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. It was at that museum that he had his first dedicated show. His recognition was beginning to grow and within twelve months he had a similar show at the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

. Frasconi was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1952. In 1955, Frasconi's woodcuts were exhibited at the Summit Art Association, now known as Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, in Summit, NJ. This show was an extensive traveling exhibition organized by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. In 1959 he was a runner-up for the

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

from the U.S. children's librarians, which annually honors the illustrator of the best American picture book for children. Thus ''The House That Jack Built'', which he also wrote, is retrospectively termed a Caldecott Honor Book. In 1962 Frasconi won a ''

Horn Book ''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietres ...

'' Fanfare award for ''The Snow and the Sun - La Nieve y el Sol'' a book he had created in two languages. He has frequently produced multilingual books. Also in 1962, he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1969. In 1982 Frasconi was the Distinguished Teaching Professor of Visual Arts at the

State University of New York at Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was fo ...

. Frasconi's students have included Martha Zelt, Adrian Lee Kellard, Tanya Kukucka and

Ron Rocco Ron Rocco (born 1953, Texas, U.S) is an American artist who has worked in New York City, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Berlin, Germany and China. His work entails performance, mixed media installations and sculptural constructions employing a mix ...

. Between 1981 and 1986 he created a series of woodcuts under the name "Los desaparecidos" (The Disappeared). This series refers directly to the people who were tortured and killed during the

Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay The civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay (1973–85), also known as the Uruguayan Dictatorship, was an authoritarian military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay for 12 years, from June 27, 1973 (after the U.S. backed 1973 coup d'état) until Ma ...

. Antonio Frasconi died on 8 January 2013.

Selected works

* ''12 Fables of Aesop'', text by

Glenway Wescott Glenway Wescott (April 11, 1901 – February 22, 1987) was an American poet, novelist and essayist. A figure of the American expatriate literary community in Paris during the 1920s, Wescott was openly gay.Eric Haralson, ''Henry James and Queer Mo ...

(Museum of Modern Art, 1954) * ''See and say = Guarda e parla = Regarda et parle = Mira y habla'' (1955) — in English, Italian, French, and Spanish * ''Frasconi Woodcuts'' (1958) * ''The House that Jack Built: La Maison Que Jacques A Batie'' (1958) — in English and French * ''A Whitman Portrait'' (1960) * ''The Snow and the Sun: a South American folk rhyme in two languages = La Nieve y el Sol'' (1962) — in English and Spanish *''A Sunday in Monterey: Woodcuts'' (1964) * ''The Cantilever Rainbow (A)'', text by

Ruth Krauss Ruth Ida Krauss (July 25, 1901 – July 10, 1993) was an American writer of children's books, including '' The Carrot Seed'', and of theatrical poems for adult readers. Many of her books are still in print. Early life and education Ruth Krauss ...

(1965) * ''A Kaleidoscope in Woodcuts'' (1968) * ''On the Slain Collegians'', a selection from the poems of Herman Melville. Edited and with woodcuts, by Antonio Frasconi (1971) * ''Frasconi: Against the Grain, the woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi'' (1974) * ''The Disappeared'', Collection of woodcuts now at the MNAV Museum Natl. Visual Arts in Montevideo, Uruguay donated by the author, curated by Eduardo Darino. There is also a film with the artwork, video and animation Eduardo Darino, introductory text by

Mario Benedetti Mario Orlando Hardy Hamlet Brenno Benedetti Farrugia (; 14 September 1920 – 17 May 2009), was an Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being publish ...

music Pablo Frasconi.

References

External links

Antonio Frasconi
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Authorities — with 115 catalog records
Antonio Frasconi
in the National Museum of Visual Arts of Montevideo

The New York Times
Antonio Frasconi
in The Old Print Shop

Article on Antonio Frasconi in El Pais, Uruguay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frasconi, Antonio 1919 births 2013 deaths American children's book illustrators Uruguayan artists Uruguayan emigrants to the United States Social realist artists