Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An exhibition of 17 landscape paintings--none ever featured publicly before--and other works by the late Gulf Coast artist Walter Anderson will open as scheduled Monday [Sept. 19] at Mississippi State University.
The public reception for "The Voluptuous Return: Still Life of Walter Inglis Anderson" will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in the McComas Hall Gallery.
Because their Ocean Springs property sustained damage from Hurricane Katrina, members of Anderson family will be unable to attend, as had been planned by the sponsoring art department and College of Architecture, Art and Design.
Also on display will be eight Anderson watercolors from the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, 17 pen-and-ink drawings from private collections and nearly 30 decorative objects and sculptures from the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tenn.
Other exhibition sponsors include the MSU Honors Program; offices of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Vice President for Research; Greater Starkville Development Partnership; and Mississippi Arts Commission.
"Plans for a campus visit by John and Leif Anderson, the artist's son and daughter, have been put on indefinite hold as they work to save remnants of their father's legacy," said MSU art professor Brent Funderburk.
The exhibition now will focus on raising funds for the Mississippi Museum Fund, which seeks to conserve and restore museums and collections affected by Katrina's devastation, he added.
"While there is no admission charge, a donation box will be available at the gallery for those who wish to support the fund," Funderburk said. Donations also may be made immediately by visiting the Web site, www.msmf.org, he added.
Anderson (1903-65) was a New Orleans native and graduate of New York's Parsons Institute of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His most widely known works were completed while frequently visiting uninhabited Horn Island during the last 18 years of his life. Most works were discovered by family members after his death.
McComas Hall Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Mondays-Fridays, and 1-4 p.m. on Sundays. Group tours may be booked by contacting the department at (662) 325-2970 or http://coldfusion.art.msstate.edu/.