Winter Exhibition Celebrates One of the First U.S. Abstract Artists

The American painter, printmaker and designer championed abstract art in the early 20th century with works that translated European modernisms into an American art form. While she experimented with post-impressionism, pointillism, cubism and abstraction, she was best known for her innovative printmaking technique. By cutting a design into a soft block of wood, then inking and transferring its individual sections one by one, Lazzell produced prints that were highly unique, with translucent colors floating within the white boundaries left by her incised lines. Over her career, she produced more than 100 woodcuts using this white-line technique.

“‘Becoming an American Modernist’ is a testament to Blanche Lazzell’s ingenuity. Her early adoption and advocacy of abstraction in the United States, exemplified by her masterful white-line woodcuts, inspired a generation of artists to embrace bold colors and flattened forms. Showcasing Lazzell’s work in various media across different stages of her career, ‘Becoming an American Modernist’ invites visitors to trace this visionary female artist’s highly independent path to modernism,” said Jordan Hillman, curatorial associate at the Bruce Museum. 

Lazzell dedicated her life to learning and experimenting with art. The West Virginia native earned a degree in fine art from West Virginia University and studied at the Art Students League in New York, where William Merritt Chase was her instructor and Georgia O’Keeffe was a classmate. She later set sail for Europe and studied at various academies in Paris, where she found the geometric abstraction that she would later experiment with while attending the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 1916, Lazzell joined several artists who exhibited their color woodblock works and established the Provincetown Printers Group, the first-ever color woodblock society in the United States. Years later, she returned to Paris, where she studied cubism with Fernand Léger, before studying for a year with abstract artist Hans Hofmann and making Provincetown her home.

Lazzell often found inspiration in her scenic surroundings in Provincetown and produced picturesque landscapes and still lifes such as “Hollyhock” (1917), a painting on view in the exhibition that presents vibrant buds set against lush greenery. Nature also surfaced in her color woodblock prints such as “The White Petunia,” an abstract depiction of large red and white blossoms. “Planes II” (1952), produced late in her career, presents geometric shapes in varying shades of red, green, yellow and gray separated by her signature thin white lines. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to test Lazzell’s various techniques for themselves in an adjacent interactive space.

"Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist” is organized by the Art Museum of West Virginia University with generous support provided by Art Bridges.

About the Bruce Museum

Located in Bruce Park and overlooking Greenwich Harbor, the Bruce Museum is a world-class institution that offers a changing array of exceptional exhibitions and educational programs that cultivate discovery and wonder through the power of art and science. Ahead of its time for taking this multidisciplinary approach over a century ago, the Bruce Museum is at the heart of  contemporary efforts to bring together art, science and education to spark conversation, connection and creativity. The Museum welcomes over 100,000 visitors annually, playing an integral role in the area’s cultural life. 

The first exhibition at the Bruce Museum took place in 1912 and featured works by members of the Greenwich Society of Artists, several of whom were part of the Cos Cob Art Colony. Their works formed the nucleus of the Museum's art holdings and continue to be a strength of the collection, which has expanded to focus on global art from 1850 to the present. Other strengths include Ancient Chinese sculpture, Native American Art, the Hudson River School, modernist works on paper and photography. 

The natural science collections include extensive holdings of regional vertebrates and insects, one of the most comprehensive collections of Connecticut Valley fossils from the Triassic and Jurassic Periods, and an exceptional collection of minerals from around the globe. In all, the community, through its generosity, has built the Museum’s varied collections of art and natural science to over 30,000 objects.

The Museum, which is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, opened a new building in 2023 that doubled the size of the museum and tripled the exhibition spaces. The new Bruce features state-of-the-art exhibition, education and community spaces, including: a changing gallery for art and five new permanent galleries in the William L. Richter Art Wing; a changing gallery for science; a permanent science exhibition, Natural Cycles Shape Our Land; three classrooms in the Cohen Education Wing; and a café, auditorium and grand hall. When the outdoor spaces are completed the Bruce campus will feature a sculpture-lined, landscaped walking path and inviting spaces for relaxation and contemplation—natural enhancements to Bruce Park and an anchoring connection to Greenwich Avenue.

For more information, visit brucemuseum.org.

About Art Bridges Foundation

Art Bridges Foundation is the vision of philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton. Founded in 2017, Art Bridges creates and supports projects that bring works of American art out of storage and into communities throughout the United States and its territories. Art Bridges partners with a growing network of more than 240 museums to provide financial and strategic support for exhibitions, collection loans, and programs designed to educate, inspire and deepen engagement with local communities. The Art Bridges Collection represents an expanding vision of American art from the 19th century to present day and encompasses multiple media and voices. 

For more information, visit artbridgesfoundation.org.

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