With his recent gift to the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art’s Permanent Collection, alumnus Thornton Willis’ art has found a home for his artistic legacy to live on through teaching and exhibiting. Willis, considered a second generation abstract expressionist, and his wife, art historian Vered Lieb, gave 27 paintings and two sketchbooks to UA last
Honored Photography Professor Passes Away
TUSCALOOSA – Gay Ann Burke, born December 30, 1946 in Brownwood, Texas, died May 1, 2017 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Gay was the first female full professor in the University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History. There, she developed a distinguished fine art photography program. She taught fine art photography to undergraduate and graduate
UA Alumna Cofounded Innovative Photography Business
Mary Stephenson Mills cofounded “one of America’s most significant twentieth-century portrait photography businesses” with her husband, Olan Mills, in Tuscaloosa in 1932. Mary Mills lent creative and technical expertise to the business she and her husband started together and built into one of the most innovative portrait photography businesses in the US until the Mills’ family
2016-2017 SMGA Exhibitions
MFA Thesis Exhibitions: Kelsey Windham and Celestia Morgan April 21 – May 26, 2017 Mel Kendrick: Woodblocks March 2 – April 12, 2017 Echoes along the Syrian Border: Family Archeology and the Sound of Distant Gunfire: Works by James Emmette Neel January 12-February 17, 2017 Saturated: Selections from the Permanent Collection November 17 – December 16, 2016
Alumna Remembers Renowned Art Professors
Vicki Lowe (MA 1971) remembers it wasn’t easy convincing her parents to let her study art at The University of Alabama. “By junior year I was totally committed to art but my parents were certain I would not find gainful employment, so they lobbied heavily for me to teach English.” Lowe accrued enough art credits
UA Alumni to Speak on Activism in Art
The UA Department of Art and Art History cordially invites everyone to a public lecture by artist James Emmette Neel, in conjunction with his exhibition in the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. Neel will speak on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. in Gorgas Library 205 on UA campus. On the same day at 5 p.m., a reception for the
In Memoriam: William Christenberry
Remembrances of the life of UA art alumnus WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY (Nov. 5, 1936-Nov. 28, 2016) in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, NPR and in AL.com by Sarah Moody Gallery of Art Director William Dooley, attest to the depth and breadth of his contributions to the art world, as well as to his cultural
Look Homeward, Mr. Christenberry
We mourn the loss of a friend of the department, an alumnus and an icon of the art world, William Christenberry (1936-2016). Below is an interview with him that originally appeared in the fall 2009 issue of The Loupe. Editor’s note, fall 2009 — William Christenberry (BA 1958, MA 1959), an internationally renowned artist and alumnus of
An Artist Reveals War’s First and Last Victims
The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art presents an exhibition by Alabama native and UA alumnus Jim Neel. Titled Echoes along the Syrian Border: Family Archeology and the Sound of Distant Gunfire: Works by James Emmette Neel, the show will run from January 12 through February 17, 2017. This solo exhibition comprises two bodies of Neel’s recent