Anunciación

Mauricio Lasansky

This early, rare, large drypoint, printed from a zinc plate, was done when the artist was twenty-four and shows his familiarity with the work of the Surrealists and Picasso, and the imagery done in Polynesia, especially Bali, the “primitive” nature of which also interested the Surrealists.

This image, titled "Anunciacion", which tranaslates as "announcement", depicts a woman standing in a field gesturing to a young man astride a horse, as birds rise around her from the grasses. What is she announcing? Or is he proposing? We can only speculate. In the background is a hillside village, with residents working their everyday jobs.

Lasansky created a 1/2" border, a "frame," around the composition and within the platemark. This frame is interrupted a number of times: by the tail of a cow, the load of a cart, the hill, mill, and wheelbarrow. This creates the illusion of infinity, that the landscape, and life, goes on and on, and the viewer is just allowed a peek into a moment.

The raisonne lists the edition at 10, though this impression, which has had restoration, indicates an edition of 4. There was not an impression available to Lasansky to measure for the raisonne. This may be the only surviving impression of this powerful composition.