Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments focuses on Daura’s portraits of his family throughout his career. Deeply meaningful images that represent events in Daura’s life and constitute a visual autobiography of the artist. Throughout his career, the Catalan-American painter Pierre Daura created numerous works inspired by his personal relationships. Raised in Barcelona, Daura first studied as a teenager with Pablo Picasso’s father José Ruiz y Blasco. After moving to Paris in 1914, he entered the studio of Emile Bernard. Paris was also where he met and, in 1928, married an American, Louise Heron Blair (1905-1972); their daughter Martha was born in 1930. This exhibition is the first one to examine Daura’s focus on their family life.
Daura stands out for the many ways in which he used his relationship with his wife and daughter to fuel his creative expression. Daura processed events—his courtship and marriage to Louise, Martha’s birth, their daily life in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in southwestern France and later in the United States, his thoughts of them during his service in the Spanish Civil War, and Louise’s illness and death—through deeply personal images that are among his most beautiful, original, and moving works.
Organized by the Indiana University Art Museum, the exhibition was curated by Adelheid M. Gealt, Director, and made possible through the generous support of the Daura Foundation and Indiana University Art Museum’s Arc Fund and the Moravec Fund, and the Georgia Museum of Art and the Daura Archive. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, published by the Georgia Museum of Art, are dedicated to Thomas W. Mapp and Andrew Ladis. At the University Museums, the exhibition and related programs are made possible in part with support from the Daura Foundation and funds from the Louis S. Booth Arts Fund.
The Artist’s Line: Drawings by Pierre Daura from the Collection is on view in the Harnett Print Study Center, August 19 through November 20, 2015. The exhibition focuses on the evolution of the artist’s techniques and style of drawing over his lifetime. Daura’s works on paper are mostly comprised of studies of his wife Louise and daughter Martha, sketches of the landscape of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, France, and etchings in response to the Spanish Civil War. The richness of his art reflects the diverse experiences of his life. Selected from a major gift of more than 228 works of art to the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center from the artist’s daughter, Martha Randolph Daura, the exhibition of drawings highlights the major themes of Daura’s long career as an artist.
Featured in the exhibition are Daura’s drawings created after his discharge from the Spanish Civil War following injuries that he sustained, as well as sketches near his home in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, France. The key figures in his etchings are modeled after early sketches of Martha and Louise. These pieces represent the repercussions of the Spanish Civil War, such as the loss of family — particularly children — as seen in the etchings. One of his drawings from 1933, Martha’s Siesta, features Martha’s profile as she is taking a nap during the day. This sketch was later used for the central figure of a girl lying in a bed in the etching The Innocent Victims of Valde, from the series Civilisation 1937.
Other highlights of the exhibition include Daura’s drawings of the figure and nature studies. These drawings reveal the artist’s continued interest in figure studies, the human form, and his appreciation of nature.
The exhibition was organized by the University of Richmond Museums and co-curated by Richard Waller, Executive Director, University Museums, and Sequioa Roscoe, ’16, University of Richmond, 2015 Harnett Summer Research Fellow, and 2015-2016 curatorial assistant, University Museums. The exhibition is made possible in part with funds from the Louis S. Booth Arts Fund.
Programming
Wednesday, August 26, 2015, 6 to 8 p.m.
6 p.m., Lecture, Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Center for the Arts
Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments
Adelheid Gealt, Director, Indiana University Art Museum, and curator of the exhibition
7 to 8 p.m., Reception and viewing of the exhibition
Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments
Harnett Museum of Art, Modlin Center for the Arts
Tuesday, September 1, 2015, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Discussion, Choral Room 127, Booker Hall of Music, Modlin Center for the Arts
Pierre Daura: Echoes of Catalonia in Music and Art
Douglas Riva, pianist, and Sharon G. Feldman, Professor of Spanish and Catalan Studies
and the William Judson Gaines Chair in Modern Foreign Languages, University of Richmond
Friday, October 2, 2015, 2 to 2:30 p.m.
Curator’s Talk, Harnett Print Study Center, Modlin Center for the Arts
The Art of Pierre Daura
Sequioa Roscoe, ’16, 2015 Harnett Summer Research Fellow and
2015-2016 Curatorial Assistant, University Museums
In conjunction with the exhibition The Artist’s Line: Drawings by Pierre Daura from the Collection
Image: Pierre Daura (American, born Catalonia, Spain, 1896-1976), Daura with Cane and Family, circa 1970-1971, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, Gift of Martha Randolph Daura, H2003.38.008, © Martha Randolph Daura and University of Richmond Museums. From the exhibition Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments
