Ogden Museum exhibit features Hull

NEW ORLEANS — The Ogden Museum of Southern Art announces its presentation of “Bright Fields: The Mastery of Marie Hull,” organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson. The exhibit is open through May 28 and will be featured during an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. March 12.
According to the museum’s news release, Emily Marie Atkinson Hull remains one of Mississippi’s most significant artists and teachers, beloved by generations of collectors and students. Born on Sept. 28, 1890, in Summit, Mississippi, Hull graduated in 1909 with a degree in music from Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi.
Soon after, she began taking art lessons from Aileen Phillips. She went on to study with renowned masters at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York.
She was awarded her first gold medal from the Mississippi Art Association in 1920, and in 1926 received her first prize at the Southern States Art League.
In 1929 she went on an extended study tour of Europe and in 1931 her work was chosen for the prestigious Spring Salon in Paris. As her style evolved over the years, she began to work in a freer, more abstract style and continued to garner many prizes and awards. Her work may be seen in the permanent collections of museums throughout the country.
“Bright Fields: The Mastery of Marie Hull” celebrates the artist’s legacy as teacher and creator, showcases her prolific life and career, and marks the 125th anniversary of her birth.
The exhibition is curated by acclaimed concert pianist and Mississippi native, Bruce Levingston, who is a life-long admirer and collector of Hull’s work.
The Ogden Museum iteration will feature 85 oil paintings and works on paper in various media (drawings, watercolors, gouaches). This retrospective exhibition contains selected masterpieces from numerous private collections as well as the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Wright Art Gallery at Delta State University, the Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and the Ogden Museum’s own holdings. Many pieces in the exhibition have never been publicly exhibited.
“Marie Hull is a critical figure in the flowering of modernist painting in the American South,” said William Andrews, Ogden Museum of Southern Art director. “Her career as a painter spanned nearly 70 years and was involved with every movement of art imaginable, producing a stunning number and array of artworks ranging from representational still-life, portrait and landscape paintings to the expressionistic tendency she labeled ‘lyrical abstraction.’”
Educational programming will accompany and enhance the exhibition for visitors, including “Free Family Day: Exploring the Mastery of Marie Hull” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 12.
Located in the Warehouse Arts District at 925 Camp St. in downtown New Orleans, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world and is recognized for its original exhibitions, public events, and educational programs.
The Ogden Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Monday and also on from 6-8 p.m. Thursdays for Ogden After Hours. Admission is free to Museum Members and $12.50 for adults, $10 to seniors 65 and older, $6.25 for children ages 5-17, and free for children under 5.
The Ogden Museum is free to Louisiana residents on from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
Ogden Museum is closed Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras.
For information visit ogdenmuseum.org or call 504-539-9650.