‘Envisioning Evil: The Nazi Drawings’ on exhibit at Baker Museum through February 19, 2023
On exhibit now through February 19, 2023 at the Baker Museum of Art are selected drawings of Mauricio Lasansky from his series entitled Envisioning Evil: The Nazi Drawings. Crafted from graphite and charcoal, asphaltum turpentine, and red and white wash, the series of 33 raw and haunting monumental drawings is making its first comprehensive exhibition since its inaugural tour over 50 years ago.
Lasansky was born in 1914 in Argentina to Jewish immigrants. In 1943, he moved to the United States, where he subsequently 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.
Coinciding with the televised trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Lasansky began a series of monumental 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 is his visceral response to the horrors committed in Nazi concentration camps.
Envisioning Evil: The Nazi Drawings is organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and lent to the Baker Museum of Art by The Levitt Foundation. The exhibition is curated by Rachel McGarry, Ph.D., 
Elizabeth MacMillan chair of European art and curator of European paintings and works on paper at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The presentation of this exhibition at Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum, and is curated by Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., curator of modern art.
November 10, 2022.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.