WVU Libraries to exhibit state native’s artwork in honor of WV’s birthday
Posted by Admin.June 7th, 2004
CONTACT: John Cuthbert, West Virginia and Regional History Collection 304-293-4040 ext. 4201
In honor of West Virginia’s 141 st birthday, the West Virginia University Libraries’ West Virginia and Regional History Collection will exhibit the artwork of Mountain State native Richard Kidwell Miller on Saturday, June 19.
Miller is scheduled to attend the exhibit in the James Hornor Davis Family Galleries and present a lecture. The exhibit will open at 5 p.m., and Miller’s lecture will follow at 6 p.m. The galleries are on the sixth floor of the Charles C. Wise Jr. Library, part of the Downtown Library Complex.
Miller was born in Fairmont during the Great Depression. He displayed artistic talent at a young age and earned early release from grade school each day to study at a local WPA arts center.
His first solo exhibition occurred when he was just 16. When his family moved to Washington, D.C., he quickly achieved recognition as one of the area’s most promising young painters.
After graduating from American and Columbia universities in the early 1960s, Miller emerged as a prominent member of the New York Abstract Expressionist School, exhibiting alongside Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and others.
His work is on display today in several museums, including the Phillips Collection and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
He was honored earlier this year as recipient of the National Academy School and Museum of Fine Art’s Adolf and Clara Obrig Prize.
For more information, contact John Cuthbert at 304-293-4040 ext. 4201.