Hailed as one of America's foremost representative painters, Alan Magee has also created a number of highly acclaimed works spanning a broad range of media and styles. This retrospective exhibition included examples of Magee's paintings, collages, and sculpture. Curated by Museum Director Bruce Katsiff, it was organized in cooperation with the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.

Alan Magee, Alphabet (detail), 1999, acrylic on panel, W.16 x H.22 inches, Burton and Deedee McMurtry. © Alan Magee

Also featured were the artist's award-winning illustrations from the 1970s, which were reproduced in Time, Playboy, Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times. A special section of the exhibition presented a selection of monotypes (single impression prints) that were part of a recent, internationally-touring exhibition.

Originally from Newtown, Pennsylvania, Magee attended Bucks County Community College, the Tyler School of Art and the Philadelphia College of Art. "From earliest childhood," Magee has written, "I have been fascinated by the forms, surfaces, and textures of the world around me. I feel compelled to make drawings that record these details, in an attempt to preserve the excitement of these discoveries."

Not satisfied with the abstract example set before him as an art student in the 1960s, Magee was determined to master the basics of drawing and illustration. His early professional work included cover illustration for novels by Graham Greene and Bernard Malamud, and Magee credits this immersion in literature as a critical influence. "By reading those books, I learned what art was," he writes. He would acquire a combination of technical skill and perception that was described by critic John Canaday of the Saturday Review as "astounding" and "an intensification of our experience of the world around us."

Alan Magee, Dolmen (detail), 1986, acrylic on canvas, W.40 x H.60 inches, Private collection. © Alan Magee

Among Magee's well known early works are a number of paintings of beach stones, discovered on the shores of New England. These meticulously crafted paintings not only reflect his fascination with texture and surfaces, but also a larger thematic interest in mutability and the passage of time. "I like to take a neglected object and draw it with great care," Magee writes.

In later works, Magee turned from his realist mode to some very different ink and brush pieces, monotypes, oil crayon and watercolor studies. Inspired by Hannah Höch's photomontages of the 1920s -- both their technical execution and their political edge -- Magee began to incorporate elements of collage into his own monotypes in the late 1980s. Increasingly, Magee's work in collages and monotypes reflected socio-political themes, but with an expansive and broadly imagined approach; as in his haunting procession of monotype faces.

His work has been the subject of several books, radio interviews and television documentaries including the WCBB production, "Alan Magee, Visions of Darkness and Light." Magee's works can be seen in many public collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Arkansas Art Center, the Arizona State University Art Museum and the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art.

Offering further insight into Magee's work is an accompanying book, Alan Magee Paintings, Sculpture, Graphics. This 224-page book is filled with captivating images of Magee's work and includes an essay by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Doylestown native Jonathan Weiner. Members price: $54.00 Non-members price: $60.00. To place an order, please contact the Museum Shop at 215.340.9800.

This exhibition was generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.

	Changing and Permanent Exhibits

	In Doylestown: Lilli Gettinger: Memory Transformed Color: Ten African-American Artists Elliott Erwitt: Dog Dogs In New Hope: Art and the River