This exhibit will be in the spotlight as a 4th Tuesday Tour Event on September 24, 2024.

Artist and educator Paul M. Levy was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944. Levy earned a BA in industrial design from the University of Cincinnati in 1968 and an MFA in printmaking and sculpture from Ohio University in 1973. He worked for design firms in Ohio, New York, and California from 1964-1971 and taught at the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University from 1971-1973.

Levy came of age during a particularly tumultuous and transformational time in American history. His popular print series titled Bill of Rights, created from 1970-1974, was sparked by American politics in the era of the Vietnam War (1955-1975). He witnessed during this period an erosion of the individual liberties and limits to government power enshrined in those first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. He also observed attempts by all sides in this divisive conflict to harness the symbolism of the American flag for political purposes.

Together, the 15 silkscreen prints in Bill of Rights are a graphic statement of Levy’s personal convictions as an artist and an engaged citizen. With fresh perspective and clever manipulation of the formal elements of the American flag, he calls attention to the importance of each amendment in this founding document – though two amendments, the first and the fifth, inspired more than one design. Last exhibited as a group in 2008, these prints were given to the Museum by The Huntington Publishing Company in 1975.

The following individuals and businesses have presented individual works in this exhibit: Freedom Gun and Pawn; Glazer Saad Anderson L.C.; The Herald-Dispatch; Bert and Lori Thabet Ketchum; Holly Smith Mount; Sarah Walling; Jennifer Wheeler In Memory of Rabbi David Wucher and In Honor of the Congregation of B’Nai Shalom; and Steve Williams.

This exhibit is presented with support from the City of Huntington Mayor’s Council for the Arts.

This exhibit 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.