Antonio Frasconi was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and grew up in Uruguay. In 1945 he was awarded a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York. He also attended the New School for Social Research and later taught there.
An internationally known woodcut artist, Frasconi has published hundreds of prints and illustrated many books. Although much of his work has registered political protest, his subjects range from urban scenes to literature to landscapes. The Frozen Sound reflects winter's cold stillness in the jagged blocks of ice, and delicate, snow-covered trees against a dark sky.
The artist conducted classes at Pratt Institute, the Brooklyn Museum School, and the Atlanta Art Institute, and was on the faculty of the State University of New York at Purchase. Frasconi's prints are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art.
[This is an excerpt from the interactive companion program to the videodisc American Art from the National Gallery of Art. Produced by the Department of Education Resources, this teaching resource is one of the Gallery's free-loan educational programs.]