Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments is on view in the Harnett Museum of Art from August 19 through October 8, 2015.

Pierre Daura (1896-1976): Picturing Attachments focuses on Daura’s portraits of his family throughout his career. Deeply meaningful images that represent events in Daura’s life and constitute a visual autobiography of the artist.  Throughout his career, the Catalan-American painter Pierre Daura created numerous works inspired by his personal relationships.  Raised in Barcelona, Daura first studied as a teenager with Pablo Picasso’s father José Ruiz y Blasco. After moving to Paris in 1914, he entered the studio of Emile Bernard. Paris was also where he met and, in 1928, married an American, Louise Heron Blair (1905-1972); their daughter Martha was born in 1930. This exhibition is the first one to examine Daura’s focus on their family life.

Daura stands out for the many ways in which he used his relationship with his wife and daughter to fuel his creative expression. Daura processed events—his courtship and marriage to Louise, Martha’s birth, their daily life in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in southwestern France and later in the United States, his thoughts of them during his service in the Spanish Civil War, and Louise’s illness and death—through deeply personal images that are among his most beautiful, original, and moving works.

Organized by the Indiana University Art Museum, the exhibition was curated by Adelheid M. Gealt, Director, and made possible through the generous support of the Daura Foundation and Indiana University Art Museum’s Arc Fund and the Moravec Fund, and the Georgia Museum of Art and the Daura Archive. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, published by the Georgia Museum of Art, are dedicated to Thomas W. Mapp and Andrew Ladis. At the University Museums, the exhibition and related programs are made possible in part with support from the Daura Foundation and funds from the Louis S. Booth Arts Fund.