ExhibitsUSA Produces Definitive Book and Exhibition on Kansas Artist, Robert Sudlow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 18, 2002

Contact:
Daniel Billingsley
Communications Coordinator
Mid-America Arts Alliance
816.421.1388 x201

ExhibitsUSA Produces Definitive Book and Exhibition on Kansas Artist, Robert Sudlow

Kansas City, MO --- Robert Sudlow, Lawrence-area landscape painter and University of Kansas professor emeritus, will be featured in a definitive book and accompanying exhibition of his painting career. The book and exhibition are organized and produced by ExhibitsUSA, the national museum service division of Mid-America Arts Alliance based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Spiritual Journeys: The Art of Robert Sudlow, is a retrospective of the career of Sudlow. Made possible through the generous gifts of Douglas County Bank, Ross and Marianna Beach, and Lawrence resident and personal friend of Sudlow, Hortense Oldfather, the book will be an authoritative account of the life and works of this Kansas artist.

Ted Haggart, Douglas County Bank president, stated, “Robert Sudlow is generally acknowledged as the preeminent landscape painter in the state of Kansas. Through the support of the bank’s owners, Ross and Mariana Beach, our bankers and Board of Directors are very pleased to help present a fine retrospective of this famous local artist to our community.”

In addition to the book, an accompanying exhibition of his paintings will begin a tour throughout the state of Kansas. Mary Kennedy McCabe, the Alliance’s executive director and Lawrence resident, has directed the publication and curated the exhibition. McCabe, a personal friend of Sudlow, has worked to bring the project to fruition for the past several years.

The exhibition will begin its tour at the Lawrence Arts Center on October 18. Guests can view the exhibition at the main gallery of the Lawrence Arts Center, located at 940 New Hampshire, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The exhibition runs through November 30.

Hardcover and softcover editions of the book will be available November 1 and can be purchased through the ExhibitsUSA offices in Kansas City. Books will also be available at the Lawrence Arts Center beginning November 8. That evening, the Lawrence Arts Center will host a public reception to honor the artist and sell copies of the book from 7-9 p.m.

From Lawrence, the exhibition travels to other Kansas venues such as the Hays Arts Center, Highland Community College, the Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, and the Shafer Art Gallery in Great Bend.

Spiritual Journeys: The Art of Robert Sudlow features essays by Dr. David Cateforis, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, University of Kansas, and Dr. Preston Fambrough, Professor, Department of English, Baker University. The introduction is written by Dr. Wes Jackson, MacArthur Fellowship recipient and President of the Land Institute. Patrick Dooley, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Design, University of Kansas, was designer of the book.

Born in Holton, Kansas, in 1920, Sudlow received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas. In 1946 he returned to Lawrence to serve as a faculty member for the KU art and design department. He retired as professor of painting in 1988. The first artist in the history of Kansas to be named the “Governor’s Artist,” an honor he received in 1974, Sudlow was also honored as Kansan of the Year in 1997 by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas.

Robert Sudlow has long been considered one of the most important painters to emerge from the Midwest. With an enthusiastic following of collectors, artists, former students, and native Kansans, Sudlow is acknowledged as the preeminent landscape painter of Kansas. Despite this fact, little is known about his method, iconology, and intent. The purpose of this project is to document Sudlow’s life and work to date, and to broaden and deepen appreciation for his painting and printmaking.

Spiritual Journeys: The Art of Robert Sudlow is a program of ExhibitsUSA, whose purpose is to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities.

ExhibitsUSA is generously supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Houston Endowment Inc., the Meadows Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Louis and Elizabeth Flarsheim Charitable Foundation, Douglas County Bank/Ross and Marianna Beach, Phillips Petroleum Company, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation, the H&R Block Foundation, Hortense Oldfather, the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, trustee, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, DST Systems, Inc., the Cooper Foundation, Maureen and Robert Decherd, the Helen Jones Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. ExhibitsUSA is a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, a private, non-profit organization founded in 1972 and assisted by the National Endowment for the Arts, its six partner state art agencies, and private contributors.

For more information regarding Spiritual Journeys: The Art of Robert Sudlow or to purchase copies of the book, contact Nicole Forster of ExhibitsUSA at their toll free number, 1 (800) 473-3872. For more information about the Lawrence Arts Center, contact gallery director, Rick Mitchell at (785) 843-2787.