Biography

Lila Oliver Asher was born in Philadelphia, PA. She studied there with Joseph Grossman, Frank B. A. Linton and at the Fleisher Art Memorial. She was also a pupil of Prof. Gonippo Raggi and held a full 4-year scholarship at the now University of the Arts. She moved to Washington DC in 1946 and established a studio for painting, sculpture and prints. She has been teaching art at the college level since 1947, first as Instructor in the Art Department of Howard University 1947-51 and at Wilson Teachers College 1953-54. In 1961 she returned to Howard University and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1964, to Associate Professor in 1966, Professor 1971, Emerita in 1991.

Her work has shown internationally, including Fisk University, Nashville, TN; National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan; National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; and USIS, Bombay, India. Residing in Chevy Chase, MD, Lila Oliver Asher is not only an accomplished educator and artist, she is also author of "Men I Have Met In Bed," a tale of the hospitalized servicemen that the author met while touring with the U.S.O.'s volunteer Hospital Sketching Program (1943-1946). Asher resides in Chevy Chase, MD and is represented in this exhibition with her linoleum block prints depicting the human figure.