Edward Hopper House Museum To Open Sculpture Exhibit

Press release from Edward Hopper House:

June 23, 2021

Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center is pleased to present an exhibition of sculpture by Dorothy Gillespie (1920-2012) in the garden from June 29 through October 1, 2021. Well known as a painter, sculptor and installation artist, Gillespie incorporated many significant 20th-century trends in her art. She pioneered joyful new directions in metal sculpture and is best known for her large-scale, colorfully painted arrangements of cut aluminum strips that radiate, undulate, or curl like giant arrangements of ribbon, enchanted towers, or bursting fireworks.

Born in Roanoke, VA, Gillespie declared early on her intention to become an artist. She studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore before moving to New York City, where she studied at the Art Student's League and Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17. Gillespie's career spanned seven decades, and was always in the forefront of the American Art movement. Early in her career, she contributed to the women’s art movement through her work as Artist in Residence at the Women's Interart Center in New York in 1972 and through her lecture series at the New School for Social Research in New York in 1977.

Gillespie's works have graced many institutions, museums, colleges, universities and public places. She was one of the first artists to offer her art to the world through displays in the lobbies of public institutions and governmental centers such as the Mayo Clinic, Epcot Center, the Warren Wilson College, the Fort Lauderdale Airport-Delta Terminal, the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, St. Marks School-Dallas, the United States Mission to the United Nations, Miami Public Library, and Court House Square-Roanoke, VA. Gillespie is also the subject of numerous reviews, critical essays, film and radio interviews as well as a book published by the Radford University Foundation Press.

Among her many honors, Gillespie received the Alice Baber Art Fund, Inc. Grant Award; a Doctor of Pedagogy from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, a Doctor of Fine Arts (Honoris Causa) from Caldwell College in Caldwell, NY, an Allied Professions Award from the Virginia Society, the American Institute of Architects in Richmond, VA, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, the Outstanding Services Award from University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, and the Gala 8 "Distinguished Woman" Award at Birmingham Southern College.

"Seeing in the mind’s eye a vision – then setting up a procedure to produce the vision – then having the courage to let the spiritual core of the human experience come to the fore in that vision; maybe this has something to do with creativity." — Dorothy Gillespie

This exhibition has been organized by Alexandra Davies and Gary Israel.

This press release was produced by Edward Hopper House. The views expressed here are the author's own.