LESLIE LASKEY (AMERICAN, 1921-2021)
Leslie Laskey
American, 1921-2021
Untitled 103
Mixed media on paper
Signed lower right. Op art construction in metallic silver, red with striped paper. Mounted behind glass, brass-toned frame with Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis label to verso.
In the hit-or-miss world of contemporary art, longevity in itself is a virtue. Leslie Laskey's lengthy biography can at times read like the artistic history of the 20th and 21st century. Now in his eighties, Laskey remains a working artist-and a central and engaging one at that. Leslie Laskey demonstrates again that working in the studio is crucial to a creative mind and longevity.
His new work explores and engages us in images found in things and places. Showing us how they work, finding sensuality in surfaces and rich mystifying colors. Laskey never separates his art from its viewer as he always engages them in the process of his work. Laskey's work investigates, transports, and explores both modernism and abstraction. Although most of his work is non-representational, hints of earth, vegetation, light and darkness peak through the colors and geometries that characterize his work. Another key element of his paintings is imagination. Leslie Laskey's art is enigmatic and mysterious; it is hard to identify, yet we want to learn more. The layers shapes, colors and forms float on the canvas, as if he captured a moment in their orbit.
Born in Michigan in 1921, Laskey served in a combat unit in Europe and was among the troops that landed on Omaha Beach early on 1944 D-Day. Leslie Laskey is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. Laskey studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) with founder and American Bauhaus pioneer Lászlò Moholy-Nagy and Indiana University. He currently divides his time between St. Louis and Manistee, Michigan.
THE LASKEY AWARD
"The Laskey Award is an annual prize awarded by competition to a student or team of students from the College of Architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. The award is organized and supported by Studio L (Link), a coalition of former students and associates of Leslie Laskey, Professor Emeritus in the College of Architecture.
The award encourages open-ended process, broad investigation, collaborative discovery and educational potential. Studio L's goals provide students in the College of Architecture with opportunities to advance ideas in ways and by means distinct from the normal curricular structure of classes and studios of the school. The Laskey Award process embodies a vehicle for his former students to interact with current students of the School of Architecture. As such the award is a forum to share past and present experience in design." -Bruno David Gallery.
Sheet: 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. (29.85 x 29.85 cm.), frame: 18 1/4 x 16 1/4 in. (46.36 x 41.28 cm.)
Purchased in 2011 through the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO.
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Leslie Laskey
American, 1921-2021
Untitled 103
Mixed media on paper
Signed lower right. Op art construction in metallic silver, red with striped paper. Mounted behind glass, brass-toned frame with Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis label to verso.
In the hit-or-miss world of contemporary art, longevity in itself is a virtue. Leslie Laskey's lengthy biography can at times read like the artistic history of the 20th and 21st century. Now in his eighties, Laskey remains a working artist-and a central and engaging one at that. Leslie Laskey demonstrates again that working in the studio is crucial to a creative mind and longevity.
His new work explores and engages us in images found in things and places. Showing us how they work, finding sensuality in surfaces and rich mystifying colors. Laskey never separates his art from its viewer as he always engages them in the process of his work. Laskey's work investigates, transports, and explores both modernism and abstraction. Although most of his work is non-representational, hints of earth, vegetation, light and darkness peak through the colors and geometries that characterize his work. Another key element of his paintings is imagination. Leslie Laskey's art is enigmatic and mysterious; it is hard to identify, yet we want to learn more. The layers shapes, colors and forms float on the canvas, as if he captured a moment in their orbit.
Born in Michigan in 1921, Laskey served in a combat unit in Europe and was among the troops that landed on Omaha Beach early on 1944 D-Day. Leslie Laskey is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. Laskey studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) with founder and American Bauhaus pioneer Lászlò Moholy-Nagy and Indiana University. He currently divides his time between St. Louis and Manistee, Michigan.
THE LASKEY AWARD
"The Laskey Award is an annual prize awarded by competition to a student or team of students from the College of Architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. The award is organized and supported by Studio L (Link), a coalition of former students and associates of Leslie Laskey, Professor Emeritus in the College of Architecture.
The award encourages open-ended process, broad investigation, collaborative discovery and educational potential. Studio L's goals provide students in the College of Architecture with opportunities to advance ideas in ways and by means distinct from the normal curricular structure of classes and studios of the school. The Laskey Award process embodies a vehicle for his former students to interact with current students of the School of Architecture. As such the award is a forum to share past and present experience in design." -Bruno David Gallery.
Sheet: 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. (29.85 x 29.85 cm.), frame: 18 1/4 x 16 1/4 in. (46.36 x 41.28 cm.)
Purchased in 2011 through the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO.
