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July
22-September 10, 2005
Opening
Reception
Friday July 22, 6-8 pm
The
Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana
is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit,
"Memories of Days Gone By: Folk Artist Hagan McGee."
The exhibit features approximately 40 paintings by Hagan
McGee, a Louisville artist whose work has echoes of
Grandma Moses and figures prominently in several local
collections including that of Brown-Forman. The exhibit
will be on display July 22 through September 10, 2005
and is sponsored by the Carnegie Center, Inc.
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There
will be an opening reception for this exhibit on Friday
July 22 from 6-8 pm. Visitors can enjoy refreshments
and a chance to meet the artist while exploring the
rich colors and sense of nostalgia that Hagan McGee’s
paintings evoke. This is event is free and the public
is invited to attend.
After
retiring from 30 years as maintenance foreman at Bishop
David High School, James "Hagan" McGee began
painting at the encouragement of several people. Before
he retired, Hagan never had any time to devote to art,
but he was always doodling or showing his sons how to
draw. As a child, Hagan followed his grandfather everywhere,
and he remembers the older man scratching little scenes
on rocks. Like the Carnegie Center’s Yenawine Dioramas,
created by Merle Yenawine from his memories of growing
up in Georgetown, Indiana, Hagan’s paintings reflect
his memories of life in his childhood, memories that
he was finally able to put on canvas after all those
years. Although none of us share his exact recollections,
his paintings awaken a sense of longing in all of us
for another time and place, a slower time when we were
kids and life was lemonade in tall glasses and bare
feet in the yard and hide and seek and telling secrets
and dreaming our dreams on hot summer nights.
Hagan
McGee has exhibited at Spalding University, Bellarmine
University, Woodford Reserve, the Kentucky Museum of
Art + Craft, Louisville Stoneware, Actor’s Theatre,
the Morehead Folk Art Museum, Inspirations, the Gourd
Patch Gallery and the Sutherland Gallery. One of his
paintings entered in the Kentucky State Fair won a purchase
award from Brown-Forman, and this past year his entry
received a 3rd place award. Hagan was also
commissioned to paint the Woodford Reserve complex of
buildings.
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