The Art Museum of West Virginia University’s final “Art Up Close!” event for the fall semester will focus on a print from the museum’s collection. Art Museum Curator Robert Bridges will discuss Blanche Lazzell’s color woodblock print, “The Graveyard.”
The presentation will be held Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 5:30 p.m. in the Museum Education Center and is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by The Friends of the Art Museum.
Audience members will have the opportunity to view the actual print and participate in a question-and-answer session, followed by a reception.
An early print by Blanche Lazzell, “The Graveyard,” is a recent acquisition for the collection and represents the first purchase from the J. Bernard Schultz Fund for the Art Museum.
Blanche Lazzell exhibited seven prints in the landmark 1919 exhibition, “Wood Block Prints in Color by American Artists,” organized by Claude Burroughs for the Detroit Institute of Arts. The wood block prints included: “West Virginia Hills,” “The Graveyard,” “The Monongahela,” “Color Organization,” “The Violet Jug,” “Trees,” and “Two Boats.”
The print, “The Graveyard,” from this exhibition was the first print taken from the block and the 31st color wood block print Lazzell created.
After the Detroit exhibition, the print was exhibited in Wichita, Chicago, Milwaukee and New York before it was sold in 1928 to Edna Brush Perkins of Cleveland, Ohio. The print remained in her family until 2012 when it came up for auction at Sotheby’s this past spring. With assets from the J. Bernard Schultz Fund, the Art Museum of WVU was able to successfully acquire this significant work of art.
The Art Up Close! presentations will continue during the spring semester.
This series of lectures is designed to give an in-depth look at a single work of art selected from the WVU Art Collection.
The “Art Up Close!” presentations are held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Museum Education Center (formerly the Erickson Alumni Center) adjacent to the WVU Creative Arts Center. All the events are free and open to the public.
For more information, contact the Art Museum of WVU at (304) 293-2141 or see the website at: http://www.ccarts.wvu.edu/art_museum.
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