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Morris Graves: Selected Letters

Authors' Presentation and Reception
Sat, 04/06/2013 - 3:30pm to 5:30pm

Lawrence Fong and Vicki Halper, coeditors of Morris Graves: Selected Letters (University of Washington Press, 2013) discuss Northwest artist Morris Graves' life; what they learned about his family, friends, lovers and art from his personal papers; and the process of editing and preparing the book.  The presentation will include readings from selected letters.  A reception and booksigning will follow.

Lawrence Fong was the associate director and curator of American and Regional Art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon.  His exhibitions and publications focus on modern and contemporary art and design.  Recent projects include One Step Big Shot:  Portraits by Andy Warhol and Gus Van Sant and a companion monograph Gus Van Sant One Step Big Shot (Nazraeli Press); Provenance: In Honor of Arlene Schnitzer; Carl Morris: History of Religions; Shape of Elegance: Paintings by Frank Okada (University of Washington Press); George Tice, Paterson, New Jersey; and Not Far From Here:  Modernism in America.  Fong also has served on the art committees and panels for the Archives of American Art; Design for Excellence, GSA; and the Oregon Arts Commission.  Fong holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Arizona.  His professional interests and experiences include modern and contemporary art, curatorial practices, and material culture.

Vicki Halper, independent curator and art historian, is a former associate curator of modern art at Seattle Art Museum and a recent James Renwick Senior Fellow of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her publications include Clay Revisions: Plate, Cup, Vase (1987),  John McQueen: The Language of Containment (1991), Findings: The Jewelry of Ramona Solberg (2001), “Double Entendre: Howard Kottler’s Gay Masquerade” in Look Alikes: The Decal Plates of Howard Kottler (2004), and Contrasts: A Glass Primer (2007). Choosing Craft: The Artist’s Viewpoint (2009), was co-edited with Diane Douglas and published by University of North Carolina Press.  Halper has curated over 40 exhibitions, and has, in the last decade alone, published essays in over 20 catalogues. In addition to the Seattle Art Museum, she has curated and/or written for Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Glass (Tacoma), Museum of Northwest Art (La Conner, Washington), Frye Art Museum (Seattle), Arkansas Art Center (Little Rock), Bellevue Art Museum (Washington), Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Alabama); Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (Spokane); Bank of America Gallery (Seattle), American Craft magazine, and Metalsmith magazine.

Event co-sponsored by the Literary Duck.

Related public programs:

Book Signing and First Friday Art Walk at White Lotus Gallery

Lecture by Richard Yarber, executive director of the Morris Graves Foundation