A new exhibition titled Doug and Lynn McCorkle Present Blanche Lazzell: West Virginia Modernist will be on view at the Huntington Museum of Art from June 5 through Sept. 5, 2021.
Lazzell (1878-1956) was an accomplished painter and teacher, and her works are highly sought after today by collectors and museums. An independent and free-spirited woman, she moved seamlessly between the hills of her native state of West Virginia, the Salons of Europe, and her adopted home and studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
“Blanche Lazzell is believed by many art experts to be West Virginia’s most noteworthy artist and we are pleased to present the public with an exhibition featuring many seldom-seen works on loan from the artist’s extended family,” said HMA Executive Director Geoffrey K. Fleming. “We want to thank Lazzell’s family members who are loaning paintings and several of the artist’s renowned woodblock prints. Four works by Lazzell from the HMA Permanent Collection will be part of this exhibition as well.”
Lazzell was among the first Americans to produce abstract prints, expressing the ideas of the Cubists and other European modernists in a series of color woodblock prints that was created in the mid-1920s. She joined with her colleagues in the Provincetown Printers Group to help pioneer the “one block” method of printing, a process that allowed the artist a great deal of freedom in the use of color, tone and texture. The subjects of her work include images of her home state of West Virginia and the bustling seaside environment of Provincetown, as well as the brightly colored flowers that adorned her garden. Her body of work, with its bold forms and strong colors, demonstrates her successful commitment to the modernist aesthetic and serves as a fitting expression of the exuberance and vitality of her own life.
This exhibition is presented by Doug and Lynn McCorkle.
This exhibition is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.
This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.
For more information on exhibitions at the Huntington Museum of Art, call (304) 529-2701 or visit hmoa.org. HMA is fully accessible.
West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305. Registration does not imply endorsement.