Ernest F. deSoto (1923-)
"Plant Forms "
Woodcut, 1957
LFAC #173
Biography
Ernest F. deSoto was born in 1923 in Tucson, Arizona. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute
in Los Angeles from 1942 until 1947 with instructors such as Jean Charlot and Richard Haines. After finishing
military service, he continued studying in Mexico from 1948-1949. During this time he learned the art of fresco
painting and using new mediums then available for both mural and easel painting. He studied art at Columbia
University and attended the University of Guadalajara. He earned a BFA degree from the University of Illinois
in 1961.
According to the VRMA website, deSoto printed lithographs for the Contemporaries Gallery in New York and taught for a
period at the University of Illinois. In 1965, he received a grant from the Ford Foundation to work at the Tamarind
Institute in Los Angeles for two years. After this two-year apprenticeship, he was awarded the title of Master Printer.
Text on the website indicates he was the first Hispanic to achieve this honor. In 1967, deSoto became the co-founder
of the Collectors Press Lithography Workshop. He remained with this group until he founded his own shop, the Ernest F.
deSoto Workshop which is located in San Francisco. The deSoto Workshop, originally founded as Editions Press, specializes
in contemporary Latin American and American lithographs, fine prints and etchings. Art works from the Workshop are
exhibited in galleries and art centers.
deSoto has exhibited in a broad array of galleries and art museums. He has received prizes for his art and his works
are represented in the permanent collections of a number of museums of art.
deSoto exhibited two prints in the Fine Arts Festival which ran from April 13-20, 1958. The woodcut, "Plant Forms,"
received a purchase award and was acquired for the Fine Arts Collection while the lithograph "Resting Figure," was
exhibited but not purchased.
Ref: Manuscript Collections of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution (filmed from the original
in the Prints Division of the New York Public Library); de Soto Workshop website; Victoria Regional Museum Association
website; Fine Arts Collection files
