Lila Oliver Asher (November 15, 1921 – February 11, 2021) was an American artist and printmaker.[1] She is best known for her printmaking, primarily with linocut and woodcut, and her subjects spanned from religious themes, myths, musicians, and mothers. Asher also explored a variety of mediums including watercolor, sculpture, drawing, portraiture, wrought iron, murals, stained glass windows, and published book about her experiences as an artist in World War II. She explored these themes and mediums over the expanse of her long career as they connected with her experiences in life.
Life
Early years
Lila was born Lila Estelle Oliver on November 15, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She started drawing as a child and received her first set of oil paints as a birthday gift from her parents when she was seven.[2] At the age of 12, Lila began studying with Joseph Grossman and started painting lessons with Frank B. A. Linton, a protégé of Thomas Eakins[3] while attending classes at Fleischer Art Memorial from 1933 to 1938. She was also a pupil of Prof. Gonippo Raggi and held a four-year scholarship to the now University of the Arts.[4] She attended in 1943, during World War II, where the skills and abilities she showed with sketching would lead to the job of sketching soldiers at military hospitals and Stage Door Canteens through the USO.[3] These portraits would then be sent to the soldiers' loved ones back home and sometimes were even used by plastic surgeons in reconstructing faces disfigured by combat wounds.[3] Asher was an unconventional volunteer for the USO Program having been an artist, but made the important and unique contribution of approximately 3,600 keepsake portraits for soldiers and their families.[5]
Middle years
After the war, in 1946, Asher moved to Washington, D.C., to establish her studio where she created advertisements, sculptures, paintings, and prints. To supplement her art, she took illustration jobs advertising for Charles Schwartz Jewelers and upscale men’s clothiers Lewis & Thos. Saltz.[2] In 1947 she started as an instructor for Howard University in their Art Department and was there until 1951. She then taught at Wilson Teachers College from 1953 to 1954 before returning to Howard University in 1961. In 1964 she was promoted to Assistant Professor, Associate Professor in 1966, and full Professor in 1971.[4]
Later years
In a 1987 newspaper, The Hilltop (a Howard University newspaper), it was pointed out that “Asher has had more than 27 one-person shows in cities throughout the nation, and has had shows in India, Iran, Turkey, and Japan”.[6] Since 1991 she had been Professor Emerita and continued to work in her studio before her death in 2021.[4] One of Asher's later solo exhibits, in 2013, showed a collection of her works within many mediums and was called "A Life With Line".[7]
Death and relatives
Asher died of complications from surgery for a perforated ulcer on February 11, 2021, at a care center in Washington at the age of 99.[3]
In addition to Asher's artwork, she wrote a book about the experiences she had while volunteering for the USO and making portraits for soldiers. Her book, Men I Have Met In Bed, (Heritage Books) consists of the stories of servicemen she encountered in hospitals she would travel to and spend a week at. One of Asher's sketches from her time sketching servicemen has been featured in the magazine On Patrol in 2012. This specific issue is on women in the military with the cover highlighting a sketch from Asher of a servicewoman in a wheelchair.[8] Asher even describes her book as "a patchwork of stories about the many soldiers and sailors who came back from World War II less than whole".[9]
In addition, the Online Archive of California (OAC) has a collection that “contains personal correspondence to and from Asher Oliver Asher, as well as sketches done by Asher, military realia, and a series of thank you letters to Asher."[10]
^ abcd"Community deaths: Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia". The Washington Post. 18 March 2021. ProQuest2502071822.
^Dunkel, Tom (4 July 2005). "Putting War Into Words; Andrew Carroll's book marks the latest chapter in his battle to preserve memories of America's military conflicts". The Sun. Baltimore. p. 1C. ProQuest406662145.
