Karl Pierce, Preparator, Joins ExhibitsUSA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 31, 2004
Contact: Sarah McGreer
sarah@maaa.org

Exhibits USA Launches National Tour of Light from the Sky:
A Tom Lea Retrospective, 1907-2001

Light from the Sky: A Tom Lea Retrospective, 1907-2001 opened in the first of seven venues on September 1, 2004, at the First Division Museum at Cantigny in Wheaton, Illinois. An exhibition of 60 paintings, works on paper, photo panels, posters, and ephemera will acquaint museumgoers across the country with Tom Lea. Lea packed a lot of art—and a lot of life—into 93 years. Except for a body of work done while he was a World War II correspondent, Lea's oeuvre depicts the austere beauty of the American Southwest and its stalwart inhabitants. Although he was a living legend in his native Texas by the time he reached 50, Lea’s fierce artistic independence and his disdain for personal homage and publicity rendered him largely unknown beyond his home state.

Lea was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1907. During the Great Depression, Lea painted murals in Washington, D.C., Texas, Missouri, and New Mexico for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In the late 1930s, Lea expanded his artistic repertoire by illustrating books by writer and folklorist J. Frank Dobie. By World War II his illustrations had attracted the attention of publisher Henry Luce, who hired him as a war correspondent for Life magazine. Lea accompanied the Allied forces into both theaters of war, documenting the horrific reality and raw emotion of war. In the 1950s and 1960s, Lea wrote six books, including a two-volume history of the King Ranch in Texas and two best-selling novels; in the early 1970s painting again became his priority, although he continued to write.

Light from the Sky is co-curated by William R. Thompson, independent curator and Lea scholar, and Debora Rindge, PhD, assistant professor of art history at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, and a specialist in western American art. In addition to paintings and works on paper, the exhibition includes photographic reproductions of some of the artist's murals, copies of Life magazine showing his work, and Lea's sketchbooks and novels. The exhibition is organized and toured by ExhibitsUSA.

The purpose of ExhibitsUSA 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 a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1972.

Light from the Sky is made possible through the generous support of James H. Clement Jr. and Maureen and Robert Decherd.

Light from the Sky: A Tom Lea Retrospective, 1907-2001
Touring September 2004 through April 2006

Sept. 1, 2004—Oct. 20, 2004
First Division Museum at Cantigny
Wheaton, Illinois

Nov. 4, 2004—Dec. 18, 2004
J Wayne Stark Univ. Center Galleries
College Station, Texas

Jan. 28, 2005—Mar. 16, 2005
Museum of the Southwest
Midland, Texas

Apr. 6, 2005—May 25, 2005
Art Museum of South Texas
Corpus Christi, Texas

Nov. 10, 2005—Feb. 12, 2006
Austin Museum of Art
Austin, Texas

Mar. 1, 2006—Apr. 17, 2006
El Paso Museum of Art
El Paso, Texas