IN MEMORIAM
EVERETT FRANKLIN SPRUCE
Everett Spruce was one of most prominent and
highly regarded contemporary Texas artists of the 20th Century.
He established his painting career and received critical acclaim
in the mid-1930s as a member of the “Lone Star Regionalists” and
the “Dallas Nine,” two groups of artists who rejected
European influences of abstraction and impressionism in favor
of strong Southwestern regional landscape and figurative content.
The stark landscapes of Central and West Texas punctuated with
people, animals, and plants remained a life-long source of
inspiration for his work. The early oil paintings were stylized
naturalistic
forms characterized by isolated clear-cut shapes in rich warm
earth colors that later softened into images suggesting broad
landscapes with muted skies done in a painterly flux of brushstrokes.
His mid-career and mature works became more lyrical and evolved
into a distinctive, mystical dreamlike feeling that continued
over the years in rich and complex images of burning trees,
mountains, ocean waves, and glowing night skies dissolving
in atmospheric
radiance. Working in the seclusion of a studio/home near Austin,
he painted to the sound of classical music. His dauntless creative
energy lasted decades beyond retirement after 34 years of teaching
at this University.
Born on Christmas morning, 1908, and raised in the rural farm
country of Faulkner County, Arkansas, he came to Dallas in
1925 to study
art at the Dallas Art Institute. He later taught from 1936-1940
at the Dallas Museum School. During this period, he met, fell
in love
with and married a young painter, Alice Kramer. They shared their
creative interests and lives for over 40 years and raised twin
daughters and two sons. Personally, he was a calm, introspective
person and
possessed a dry sense of humor, a sharp wit, and a love of everything
Irish. Although he was born on Christmas, his family always celebrated
his birth on St. Patrick’s Day, and it was many years before
his children understood this was not his actual birthday. He was
intensely curious about all things natural and his taste in the
arts was broad and inclusive of forms and styles from the ancient
to the
most modern works.
Everett Spruce and several other innovative Texas artists were encouraged
by William Doty to join and develop a modern studio program at the
then newly formed Art Department at The University of Texas at Austin.
In 1940, he accepted a teaching position and remained a full-time
member of the faculty until his retirement in 1974. He also served
as the department chairman from 1949-51. During his long tenure,
he was an important influence on and a source of encouragement to
a host of young artists. His former students remember him as a kind
and gentle teacher and critic. He was a strong advocate for learning
the basic fundamentals of design and drawing before moving on to
advanced courses to freely explore new and uncharted directions in
individual creative efforts. Professor Spruce was an active participant
in the many changes that occurred after World War II. These changes
included rapidly expanding art classes held in wooden temporary buildings,
the opening of an excellently designed and equipped facility with
a museum/teaching gallery, and a growing faculty that attracted the
largest number of art students in the Southwest.
Everett Spruce lived a long, vigorous and productive life before
passing away on October 18, 2002, at the age of 94. Over the years
his work received state, regional, national, and international attention.
His art is held in the permanent collections of the Museums of Fine
Art in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, as well as the Jack S. Blanton
Museum at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Marion Koogler
McNay Art Museum and the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Other major
collections including his works are the Metropolitan Museum and the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco,
the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern
Art, Rio de Janeiro. Numerous publications and catalogs document
his distinguished career, and a portfolio of his paintings was the
first to be published in the Blaffer Series of Southwestern Art by
UT Press. His list of one-person and group exhibitions is extensive
and indicates his success and the dedication of Everett Spruce to
his life-long explorations in the art of painting at its finest level
of quality.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution was prepared by a special committee consisting
of Professors
Gibbs Milliken (chair), Kenneth J. Hale, and Vincent Mariani.
