Blanche Lazzell (1878–1956), a cubist painter known for her white line woodcuts, received a degree from West Virginia University in 1905. She later studied at the Art Students League, as well as in Paris and Provincetown, Massachusetts. As she continued her studies, her work became more and more informed by modernism; however, it was her involvement in Hans Hofmann’s drawing classes in 1937–38 that encouraged Lazzell’s return to abstraction. Published to accompany an exhibition held at West Virginia University, in Morgantown, West Virginia, the catalogue features drawings by Blanche Lazzell with a major essay by Kristina Olson, explaining Hans Hofmann’s impact on the artist. The catalogue lists 30 works in the exhibition.
Robert Bridges is curator of the Art Museum of West Virginia University. Between 2000 and 2015, Bridges organized more than 80 exhibitions in WVU’s Mesaros Galleries, among them “Ceramic Art from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute” and two national exhibitions featuring the work of American Modernist Blanche Lazzell. Since the opening of the Art Museum in 2015, his curatorial projects have included “Shepard Fairey: Work Against the Clampdown” and “Paintings and Sculptures by Sally and Peter Saul,” among others. Bridges is co-editor (along with Kristina Olson and Janet Snyder) of Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of An American Modernist (WVU Press, 2004). He received his MFA in printmaking at WVU and previously worked as a curator in the private sector in Chicago.
Kristina Olson is an associate professor of art history at West Virginia University, as well as the associate director of the School of Art & Design. Her research focuses on the intersection of contemporary art and architecture. She is co-editor of Social Practice Art in Turbulent Times: The Revolution Will Be Live (Routledge, 2019).
