Pierre Daura: Modernist in the
Mountains and
Take 10: Collectors’
Circle 10th Anniversary
The Asheville Art Museum is excited to host an opening reception for
two exhibitions Sunday, March 16 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Both Pierre
Daura: Modernist in the Mountains and Take 10: Collectors’ Circle
10th Anniversary are on view beginning Saturday, March 15.
Pierre Daura: Chicken House and Jump Mountain |
Pierre Daura: Modernist in the Mountains features the beautiful artwork of artist Pierre
Daura, including many mountain landscapes – scenes that residents of Western
North Carolina will feel connected to. In 1998, the Museum received a gift of
36 paintings by Pierre Daura, given by the artist’s daughter Martha R. Daura,
and the Museum is thrilled to be showing some of the works.
Pedro
Francisco Daura y Garcia (1896-1976) was born in Minorca, Spain and raised in
Barcelona. He studied in Paris and in later years spent his summers in France.
But from 1939 until his death in 1976, he lived in the Shenandoah Valley near
Lexington, Virginia. The paintings the Museum selected focus on his work done
in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley. Daura’s paintings from
this region often depict sites and scenes from life near his home. In some
images, he works in an Impressionist style while in others he utilizes a
Cubistic approach. His reflective character is evident in these analytic and
exuberant paintings.
As a young
man, Daura studied in Barcelona at the School of Fine Arts with Pablo Picasso’s
father, Jose Ruiz Blasco. In 1910, at the age of 14, he rented a studio with
fellow artists and sold work in his first exhibition. At the age of 18, he went
to Paris with a letter of introduction from his godfather, cellist Pablo
Casals.
Daura
exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1922 and 1926. His rejection from the Salon
in 1928 was a catalyst for joining other artists such as Jean Helion, Ernest
Engel-Rozier, Alfred Aberdam and Joaquin Torres-Garcia in a highly acclaimed
exhibition entitled Cinq peintres refuses par le jury du Salon at the Galerie
Marck. It was during this time that Daura met and married an American art
student, Louise Blair.
In the
mid-1930s, Daura made his first trip to Virginia to visit his wife’s family. In
1937, he joined the Republican army in Spain as a volunteer fighting against
the forces of Franco. He served and was wounded at the battle of Teruel and
went to France to recuperate. Refusing to return to Spain after the war, the
family stayed in France until 1939, when World War II prompted their move to
Virginia. For the remainder of his life, Daura lived in Rockbridge Baths near
Lexington. Daura was active as an artist and teacher. He taught at Lynchburg
College and Randolph Macon Woman’s College.
Take 10: Collectors’ Circle 10th Anniversary
celebrates the generosity of the Asheville Art Museum’s Collectors’ Circle, a
membership group that encourages the exchange of ideas and interests, art
learning, connoisseurship and collecting. As a vibrant and critical source of
support, they are dedicated to growing the Museum’s Permanent Collection
through annual gifts of artwork, selected and presented in partnership with the
curatorial staff.
The Collectors’ Circle also supports the long-term
growth of the Museum’s acquisition funds to strategically purchase art. The
Circle promotes the Museum’s mission to collect, preserve and interpret
American art of the 20th and 21st centuries. This exhibition presents a wide
variety of gifts to the Museum by this dynamic group and includes works of art
from the Circles’ first 10 years.
Take 10 is on view in the Museum’s
Holden Community Gallery, which is always free and open to the public.
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