Share Tweet Share Email

Retired art professor wins international award

March 22, 2012
David Driesbach

David Driesbach

David Driesbach, who retired from the NIU School of Art in 1991, has won the 2012 Printmaker Emeritus Award from the Southern Graphics Council International.

Born in Wausau, Wis., in 1922, Driesbach spent his time during World War II as a Marine in the Pacific Theatre.

Upon returning state side, he studied painting and printmaking at the University of Illinois, Beloit College, the University of Wisconsin and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1951, he received his MFA from The University of Iowa under the tutelage of Mauricio Lasansky. He also studied with prominent printmaker Stanley William Hayter, who introduced him to viscosity printing.

Driesbach worked for 39 years as an educator, from 1952 to 1991, and has been exhibiting art since 1949.

After teaching at numerous institutions such as Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas; Iowa State College, Cedar Falls, Iowa; Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois; and Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, he spent the majority of his time at NIU. He came to DeKalb in 1964 and remained until his retirement from academic life in 1991.

His paintings, drawings, bronzes, and prints have been exhibited in more than 250 one-man and 500 group shows including: The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; The Brooklyn Museum; The Chicago Art Institute; and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

More than 300 public collections contain his work such as The University of Notre Dame, Fredonia State College of New York, and The Butler Museum. His works have shown in numerous International Competitions. Among them are the 11th International Exhibition of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia; Premio Internationale Biella Per L’Incisione, Milan, Italy; and the Seventh British International Invitational in Bradford, England.

“David Diresbach has a lifetime of artistic endeavors and is well respected as an educator, having instilled strong commitment in an impressively large group of students,” SGC International said on its conference website. “He is an internationally known expert and innovator in the printmaking field, having helped create technical advances in color viscosity printing.”