Fay Lansner (1921-2010) was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Russian Jews. She began her art education at the Tyler School of Fine Arts at Temple University. In 1948 Lansner moved to New York, where she studied with Hans Hofmann, at The Art Students League, and art theory with Susanne Langer at Columbia University. She lived in Paris for several years in the early 50’s and studied under the direction of Fernand Leger and Andre L’Hote.
Lansner’s first exhibition was held in New York at the Hansa Gallery in 1954 alongside Jane Wilson, Wolf Kahn and Jan Muller. For many years she worked in the 10th Street Studio Building and exhibited at the Kornblee Gallery, Phoenix Galleries, and the Ingber Gallery.
During the 1950s, the artist and her husband Kermit Lansner, an editor at Newsweek Magazine, began to spend summers on the eastern end of Long Island. Lansner exhibited at the Benson Gallery, the Spanierman Gallery, Guild Hall and with Arlene Bujese and made lifelong friends including Willem De Kooning, Larry Rivers, Perle Fine, Audrey Flack and the critic, Harold Rosenberg.
Lansner was involved with the women’s art movement in the 70’s and co-founded Women in the Arts, an organization seeking to change public and institutional attitudes toward women artists. In 1972 members demonstrated against discriminatory curatorial practices in front of the Museum of Modern Art. Shortly after the protest the landmark Women Choose Women show of works by 109 women artists opened at the New York Cultural Center.
Posthumously, Lansner’s work has been exhibited at The Church and the Keyes Gallery in Sag Harbor, the Southampton Arts Center and was part of the comprehensive exhibit, Inventing Downtown at the Grey Art Gallery.