| LYRICAL LINES: THE LINOLEUM BLOCK PRINTS OF WALTER ANDERSON |
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From Thursday, April 17 2008
To Sunday, June 15 2008
9:30am - 4:30pm Sunday, Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday - week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 every month |
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| When faced with his father-in-law’s refusal
to allow Anderson to paint murals in the rooms and bedrooms of his
children in the family’s historic home, Oldfields in Gautier,
Mississippi, in the early 1940’s, Anderson resorted to creating the
largest linoleum block prints ever fashioned by an American artist.
Inspired by well-loved fairy tales he had learned as a child, Anderson
untiringly cut images illustrating stories such as Rapunzel,
Cinderella, the Cat Princess and Thumbelina into lengths of linoleum
over six feet long, and printed them in striking colors onto salvaged
wallpaper. His inspiration was also drawn from the scenes and birds,
flowers, fish and plants of his beloved Gulf Coastal home. The pattern
created by mosses and pitcher plants on the ground swirl gracefully
upwards to entwine longleaf pine trunks and burst open above into the
pine needles’ formalized design. Ducks flying above mingle with
butterflies and the symmetry dissolves downward into a pattern
depicting the wind and waves. In 1949 the Brooklyn Museum in New York
presented an exhibition of his block prints. In “Lyrical Lines” many of
the works included were printed and painted by Anderson himself as well
as those printed by his daughter-in-law Carolyn and painted by his
niece Adele Anderson Lawton.
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