FROM SPAIN TO VIRGINIAThe Art and Times of Pierre DauraKarl Emil Willers, Ph.D.The Taubman Museum of Art is privileged to hold arange of impressive works by Pierre Daura spanning hiscareer and his practice as an artist, and it is our honorand pleasure to present a focused exploration of his artand times. Alongside works by Pierre Daura from severaldistinguished collections, the exhibition From Spain toVirginia showcases a variety of Daura’s works from theMuseum’s permanent collection.Daura is of the generation of early twentieth-centurymodernists who immigrated to the United States with theoutbreak of World War II. In 1939, Daura, his wife, Louise,and their young daughter, Martha, visited Louise’s familyin Virginia. With the outbreak of the Second World War inEurope, the Dauras stayed in America for the duration of theconflict, not returning to their home in south central Franceuntil the hostilities had ended in 1948. In relocating close toLouise’s family in Rockbridge Baths, Daura was very mucha part of the larger displacement of European artists aroundthe world during the late 1930s and throughout the early1940s. That migration to the Americas of European artistsis a formative part of the history and spread of modernismand the dissemination of avant-garde artistic practicesthroughout the world.With the notable exception of his ventures into abstraction,Daura’s different modes of expression remained firmlyanchored in his immediate, intimate, and domesticsurroundings. Throughout his career, Daura’s paintingcontinued to advance the artistic genres of portraiture,landscape, and still life. Possibly more than any otherartist of his generation, Daura’s portraits are focusedlargely on his own visage as well as that of his wife anddaughter – or their close friends and associates who werepart of the Daura family’s daily life. Daura’s still-life worksmost commonly depict vases filled with cut flowers ortabletops piled with fresh fruits and everyday householditems. In the landscapes, canvases portray either theimmediate neighborhood of the Daura family’s dwelling inSaint-Cirq-Lapopie, France, or the nearby surroundings oftheir homes in western Virginia. While providing a closelook at works in the permanent collection of the TaubmanApples and Grapes (detail), 1940, Oil on wood, Taubman Museum of Art, Gift of Martha Randolph Daura, 2003.02810
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