"See America First": Prints by H. C. Westermann

June 28 – September 9, 2001

"See America First" is the first retrospective exhibition of the prints of the American sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker H. C. Westermann (1922–1981), a central figure in American art of the post-war period. The Smart Museum mounted an exhibition of lithographs, linoleum cuts, woodblock prints, and related drawings and ephemera by this artist who was highly influential in Figurative and Pop Art trends, as well as in the locally based Chicago Imagist movement. The exhibition was organized to complement the Museum of Contemporary Art's concurrent exhibition of H. C. Westermann's sculptures, providing an unparalleled opportunity to compare the relationships in style, subject, and theme between the prints and the sculptural objects of this important artist.

Curator: Dennis Adrian and Richard A. Born, Smart Museum Senior Curator.

Tour: University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia, January 26 – March 31, 2002; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California, April 28 – July 7, 2002; and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, October 4 – December 1, 2002.

This exhibition, catalogue, and teachers' website were made possible by funds from Robert and Joan Feitler, Raymond Smart, and the Smart Family Foundation. The exhibition was also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Catalogue available

Presented in the Richard and Mary L. Gray Special Exhibition Gallery.

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