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Blanche Lazzell (b. 1878, Maidsville, WV - d. 1956, Morgantown, WV) created paintings, ceramics, and hooked rugs but was perhaps best known as a master of the white-line woodcut. Her work helped define the group known as the Provincetown Printers; she also made important contributions to Cubism and abstract art.
Born on a farm near Maidsville, WV, Lazzell was an ambitious, highly educated, and unconventionally independent woman. She earned degrees in liberal arts, literature, and fine arts – unusual accomplishments for a woman at the time. In 1907, Lazzell moved to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League where she studied with William Merritt Chase alongside classmate Georgia O’Keeffe. In 1912, Lazzell traveled throughout Europe with a group of women before settling in Paris, where she enrolled at the Académie Julian and the Académie Moderne, studying modern art. Abstraction became an important part of her artistic practice.
In the summer of 1915, she traveled to the art colony in Provincetown, MA to study under Charles Hawthorne and Oliver Newberry Chaffee. This is where she first encountered white-line woodcuts. She went on to master the medium, creating her signature imagery composed of vivid colors and clean lines. According to curator Barbara Stern Shapiro, “Both O’Keeffe and Lazzell broke new ground in their early non-representational observations of the natural world and, significantly, could be described as the first women artists in America to work in a modernist style.”
Each of her woodblock prints are like paintings – every color was painted on the block individually, resulting in each impression being unique. She explained, “Originality, simplicity, freedom of expression, and above all sincerity, with a clean cut block, are characteristics of a good wood block print.”
In 1923, at the age of forty-five, Lazzell returned to Paris and devoted herself to the study of Cubism, studying first with Fernand Léger and later with André Lhote and Albert Gleizes. Explaining his technique for creating an abstract composition, Legér wrote an essay especially for Lazzell. Under the direction of Gleizes, Lazzell produced several series of Cubist drawings based on the “Golden Section” - an ancient mathematical method for exploring form and space in simplified Cubist composition. Lazzell closely followed Legér’s and Gleize’s teachings and her work became increasingly abstract.
The major solo exhibition Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist has been traveling since 2024 and will open in February 2025 at The Bruce Museum, CT.
Lazzell’s work has most recently been included in solo and group exhibitions at the Academy Art Museum, MD (2024); Cape Cod Museum of Art, MA (2024); Phoenix Art Museum, AZ (2024); Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, CA (2024); Whitney Museum of American Art, NY (2022); Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA (2021); The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, MO (2016); Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution, DC (2014); Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ (2014); The Chrysler Museum of Art, VA (2010); among others.
Lazzell’s work is in numerous prominent museum collections, including Amon Carter Museum of American Art, TX; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Art Museum of West Virginia University, WV; the Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Crystal Bridges of American Art, AR; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; the Huntington Library Collection and Botanical Gardens, CA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA; Newark Museum, NJ; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; among others.
Born on a farm near Maidsville, WV, Lazzell was an ambitious, highly educated, and unconventionally independent woman. She earned degrees in liberal arts, literature, and fine arts – unusual accomplishments for a woman at the time. In 1907, Lazzell moved to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League where she studied with William Merritt Chase alongside classmate Georgia O’Keeffe. In 1912, Lazzell traveled throughout Europe with a group of women before settling in Paris, where she enrolled at the Académie Julian and the Académie Moderne, studying modern art. Abstraction became an important part of her artistic practice.
In the summer of 1915, she traveled to the art colony in Provincetown, MA to study under Charles Hawthorne and Oliver Newberry Chaffee. This is where she first encountered white-line woodcuts. She went on to master the medium, creating her signature imagery composed of vivid colors and clean lines. According to curator Barbara Stern Shapiro, “Both O’Keeffe and Lazzell broke new ground in their early non-representational observations of the natural world and, significantly, could be described as the first women artists in America to work in a modernist style.”
Each of her woodblock prints are like paintings – every color was painted on the block individually, resulting in each impression being unique. She explained, “Originality, simplicity, freedom of expression, and above all sincerity, with a clean cut block, are characteristics of a good wood block print.”
In 1923, at the age of forty-five, Lazzell returned to Paris and devoted herself to the study of Cubism, studying first with Fernand Léger and later with André Lhote and Albert Gleizes. Explaining his technique for creating an abstract composition, Legér wrote an essay especially for Lazzell. Under the direction of Gleizes, Lazzell produced several series of Cubist drawings based on the “Golden Section” - an ancient mathematical method for exploring form and space in simplified Cubist composition. Lazzell closely followed Legér’s and Gleize’s teachings and her work became increasingly abstract.
The major solo exhibition Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist has been traveling since 2024 and will open in February 2025 at The Bruce Museum, CT.
Lazzell’s work has most recently been included in solo and group exhibitions at the Academy Art Museum, MD (2024); Cape Cod Museum of Art, MA (2024); Phoenix Art Museum, AZ (2024); Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, CA (2024); Whitney Museum of American Art, NY (2022); Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA (2021); The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, MO (2016); Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution, DC (2014); Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ (2014); The Chrysler Museum of Art, VA (2010); among others.
Lazzell’s work is in numerous prominent museum collections, including Amon Carter Museum of American Art, TX; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Art Museum of West Virginia University, WV; the Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Crystal Bridges of American Art, AR; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; the Huntington Library Collection and Botanical Gardens, CA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA; Newark Museum, NJ; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; among others.