George Whitman: Drawn to Nature March 28 to June 6, 2008 Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums On view in the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art from March 28 through June 6, 2008, and organized by the University of Richmond Museums, is the exhibition George Whitman: Drawn to Nature. More than thirty etchings and graphite drawings are featured in this anthology of artworks by contemporary Virginia artist George Whitman (American, born 1944). Included in the exhibition are meticulously drawn works describing a fantastical view of nature, where flora and fauna exist in a dream-like landscape. The exhibition presents the premier showing of his “Untitled” portfolio of ten etchings, published by Center Street Studio and created over a ten-year period, depicting a miscellany of animals, from a boar, to a rooster, to a crocodile. The artist is currently an adjunct assistant professor of art in the University of Richmond’s Department of Art and Art History and also in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Art Foundation Program in the School of the Arts.
George Whitman received his B.F.A in graphics and his M.F.A in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute, New York. He has been in numerous group exhibitions, including the National Academy of Design, New York; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; American Museum of Illustration, New York; Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia; and New York University Galleries, New York. His one-person exhibitions include The Print Cabinet Gallery, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Forbes Library Gallery, Northampton, Massachusetts; Harriet Griffin Gallery, New York; Pratt Manhattan Center, New York; Courthouse Galleries (two-person exhibition), Portsmouth Museums, Portsmouth, Virginia; and a traveling exhibition organized by the University of Richmond Museums and circulated by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts State-Wide Exhibition Program. Whitman’s work is in several public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; New-York Historical Society, New York; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, University of Richmond Museums, Virginia.