Marguerite Louis Blasingame

Who was Marguerite Louis Blasingame?

Marguerite Louis Blasingame was an American sculptor and painter. She was born Marguerite Louis in Honolulu in 1906. She graduated from the University of Hawaii and then went on to earn an M. A. in art from Stanford University in 1928. Marguerite returned to Hawaii, where she became an established sculptor of figural works, many of them bas-reliefs in wood and stone. Her depictions were usually sinuous in contour with simplified anatomy. During the Great Depression she was a Works Progress Administration artist and filled many commissions for architectural panels.

Blasingame also painted in a symbolist style and was a member of the Hawaiian Mural Guild. She authored A Course in Art Appreciation for the Adult Layman, which was published by Stanford University Press. Marguerite Louis Blasingame died in 1947 while traveling in Mexico.

One of her wooden sculptures is installed in the John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery of the Honolulu Museum of Art. Other sculptures in public places includes an untitled 1935 marble sculpture in Ala Moana Park, Honolulu, Hawaii and Hawaiian Decagonal Fountain at Kawananakoa School, Honolulu, Hawaii.