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Best known for his magnificent light- filled paintings of the desert southwest, the late Tom Lea (1907-2001) has also been recognized as one of the master draftsmen of his time. Gallery owner Adair Margo emphasizes that one of the greatest pleasures in studying the artist's preparatory drawings is that they reveal how Lea understood the structure and design of his paintings, and how he worked out each part of a painting before incorporating it into the overall composition. Lea would complete many drawings for each painting he made to fully understand the shape, line and form of his subject. He destroyed most of these preliminary works, making those on view all the more valuable.
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Like Lea, Massey who is the current President of the United Kingdom Colored Pencil Society, has established an international reputation for works in both in pencil and oil. The artist, who moved to Paris in 1994 but spent most of her life in El Paso, is quick to credit Lea's masterful book illustrations and the original landscapes and portraiture which she saw on the walls of relatives as a major source of inspiration as a young artist. Comprised of images from personal and private collections, this exhibition will specifically showcase Massey's wax pencil drawings, the medium which most closely corresponds to Lea's work in pencil and charcoal.
The public is invited to attend both the reception, and a Gallery Talk, during which Massey will present her views on the topic, "Symbolism and Representation in Western Civilization Art: fact and fiction". In this thought provoking lecture, the artist will discuss and show examples of symbolism and representation utilized in European and American art over the past centuries. She will also touch upon the tendency of modern art historians to reapply modern variations of the concepts of the past, especially since the advent of Freud, and the trend of modern artists, critics, and even the popular book, "The Da Vinci Code" towards the strong use of symbolism.
As the exclusive representative of Tom Lea’s estate, the Adair Margo Gallery is pleased to display this collection of Tom Lea drawings in conjunction with “Light from the Sky, A Tom Lea Retrospective”, which opens at the El Paso Museum of Art on Sunday, March 5.
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