Envisioning Evil: “The Nazi Drawings” by Mauricio Lasansky

Envisioning Evil: “The Nazi Drawings” by Mauricio Lasansky

October 16, 2021 - June 26, 2022
Gallery 262, Gallery 275, Gallery 276
Free Exhibition

The son of Jewish immigrants in Argentina, Mauricio Lasansky (1914–2012) moved to the United States in 1943. He forged a flourishing career as a printmaker and draftsman, first in New York and then from studios in Iowa and Maine. His work often explored themes of war and violence. In 1961, coinciding with the televised trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, he began a series of drawings to grapple with the Holocaust. Confronted with the atrocities, he said, “I was full of hate, poison, and I wanted to spit it out.” “The Nazi Drawings” are his visceral response to the horrors committed in Nazi concentration camps.

Brutal, haunting, and raw, “Envisioning Evil: ‘The Nazi Drawings’ by Mauricio Lasansky” features his series of 33 monumental drawings made with pencil, turpentine, and earth colors. The exhibition, over 50 years after the series’ original tour, is its first comprehensive presentation in a generation. At Mia, archival media of the Eichmann trial and a selection of contemporary prints by Lasansky will also be shown. A catalogue examines Lasansky’s series, acquired in its entirety by Richard and Jeanne Levitt for their family foundation.