Lasting Impressions: Original Prints and Vintage Photographs from the Stephen W. and Mary M. Pruitt Collection

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art

Laurel, MS

601-649-6374

Lasting Impressions: Original Prints and Vintage Photographs from the Stephen W. and Mary M. Pruitt Collection

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is sending out the old year and ringing in the new one with an exhibition of a private collection amassed over 10 years of birthdays and holidays.

Lasting Impressions: Original Prints and Vintage Photographs from the Stephen W. and Mary M. Pruitt Collection is on display in the Museum's Lower Level Galleries through January 30, 2000. The exhibition is being sponsored by The Essmueller Company. Dr. Pruitt will discuss his collection during an Art Talk on Thursday, January 20, 2000, from noon - 1 p.m. in the Lower Level Lecture Hall. (left: Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Little Penthouse, 1931, drypoint)

The Pruitts, a Memphis couple with two teenage daughters, began collecting in 1989 when they purchased an 1890 landscape by German artist Franz von Stuck for Stephen's birthday. The original plan was to purchase the works of art on birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases, but the couple's enjoyment of their new hobby soon overcame their need to purchase only on special occasions. (right: Paul Strand (1890-1976), Maison-Chaumont (Loir-et-Cher), 1950, gelatin silver photograph printed in 1950)

"It wasn't until we bought Sir Francis Seymour Haden's masterpiece, A Sunset in Ireland, on September 17, 1996, to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of Washington's Farewell Address that we knew we were in trouble," Dr. Pruitt said.

The pieces on display at LRMA include works by the famous American photographer, Ansel Adams, as well as a gelatin silver photograph by a lesser known American, Paul Caponigro.

Early Spring, a color woodcut by Indiana printmaker Gustave Baumann, adds a touch of color to the exhibition, while viewers may have to look twice at works such as Gerald Brockhurst's Girl with a Basket to tell whether the work is an etching or a photograph.

"The Pruitt's collection is interesting because you'll find some familiar works and also be surprised that other works have slipped through the art world without being more noticed," LRMA Director George Bassi said. "Dr. and Mrs. Pruitt have been very generous in sharing this collection with the Museum, and we certainly have enjoyed working with them," he added.

Learn more in Resource Library Magazine about the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

rev. 12/8/10

Search Resource Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.