Born in 1914 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of 19, he began to study painting, sculpture and printmaking at the Escuela Superior of Bellas Artes (Superior School of Fine Arts), Buenos Aires. In 1943, Lasansky came to the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent a year studying the print collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1945, he was appointed lecturer in printmaking at the University of Iowa, where he established the first Master of Fine Arts in printmaking program in the country. In 1961, Time magazine called the University of Iowa, “the printmaking capital of the United States.” As a printmaker, Mauricio Lasansky was known for the grand scale of his images, his vivid color and the complex layering of multiple print techniques, including engraving, etching, lithography, drypoint, electric stippling and aquatint, in a single work. Mauricio Lasansky was one of the few modern artists who limited their work almost exclusively to the graphic media. Due to his early contributions in the development of graphic techniques and his dedication to teaching printmaking, Lasansky is considered to be a forerunner in the evolution of printmaking as a critical art form and is internationally recognized as “one of the fathers of 20th Century American printmaking.” Mauricio Lasansky died in 2012.