Title: Merry Xmas from Leona & Antonio Frasconi.
Artist: Antonio Frasconi (1919-2013)
Color woodcut, undated.
Edition not noted.
Unsigned. Folded as mailed. This piece was created as a Christmas card.
Paper size 19 x 17 15/16" (48.2 x 20.1 cm).

Antonio Frasconi (Uruguay/American) an artist, teacher, and author recognized for his woodcuts, artist's books and children's books. "Time Magazine" called him "America's foremost practitioner of the ancient art of the woodcut," and "The Art Journal" called him "the best of his generation."

Frasconi was born on April 28, 1919, in Montevideo, Uruguay. His parents were Italian immigrants who had fled Italy during WWI. Frasconi loved to read and draw and at age twelve he took a position as a printer's apprentice. He was producing left leaning illustrations for publications in his teens, drawing great inspiration from social and political issues.
In 1945 his work was recognized in the United States and he received a one-year scholarship to study at the Art Students League. A year later his work was exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum followed by an exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum in California. He settled in New York City, and his first gallery exhibition was in the Weyhe Gallery in 1948. The same year he began studying at The New School in New York where he would later teach. As an artist he split his time between woodcut images for sale as individual objects, artist’s books and children's books. He produced a large body of woodcuts, however, often in very small editions.

Condition: Good condition, save some repaired splitting along the folds and some minor offsetting.