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History
Arthur Deshaies was born in 1920 in Providence, Rhode Island and passed away on July 30, 2011 in Duncan, South Carolina. By the age of 10 Deshaies was using his mother's washing machine hand wringer to experiment with the print-making process. During World War II Deshaies served as a paratrooper and as an official war artist. Deshaies received his Bachelor's of Fine Arts in 1948 from Rhode Island School of Design and his Master's in Fine Arts from Indiana University in 1950. During his career, Arthur Deshaies taught art at several universities throughout the United States, including Indiana University, but retired from Florida State University at Tallahassee in 1989, after teaching there for 26 years. Throughout his life Deshaies became the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including the prestigious Fulbright Grant. Deshaies also worked with the United States Information Agency to bring greater awareness of American art by displaying several pieces of his art in areas of diplomatic outreach, such as embassies and offices open to the public in Eastern and Western Europe. The prints used in this collection were put on permanent display in US government buildings in the capitals of Germany, Serbia, and Croatia. Deshaies is most well-known for his abstract style of printmaking and paintings and was creating abstract paintings based on his interpretation of the universe well into his 80s. The Indianapolis Museum of Art currently has 7 pen and ink drawings created by Deshaies in the permanent collection.