Page 37 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2015

ON DISPLAY
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Cuenca, Spain, watercolor and graphite on paper. High Horizon, oil on canvas. Seated Male Nude Study, charcoal and chalk on paper. The Pink Lady, oil on canvas. Self- Portrait, pastel on paper. Melissa, oil on canvas. BELOW: MARIE HULL stands among her work in her study.
the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, offers powerful insights about how perseverance and passion can yield incredible productivity in even the most shifting sands.
“Hull was a pioneer in symbolic ways as a woman artist of her time as she left Jackson to go to art school in Philadelphia at a time when that was a daring thing to do,” Bradley said.
Author and curator Levingston has known about Marie Hull since he was a child. “She was a revered figure in the Delta where I grew up and her beautiful works were regularly shown at Delta State University and collected by people I knew in the area,” he said. “I was fascinated, even as a child, by her explosive use of color and bold brush strokes. She painted with color the way I heard music.”
Levingston found Hull’s willingness to fearlessly explore the unknown
the most inspirational thing about her life. “That she was a woman
born in 1890 in a small town in Mississippi — Summit — makes that all the more remarkable,” he said. “She was a true pioneer of art in the South. She saw the true beauty of all people and nature around her, and her unflinching, insightful eye reveals itself in her exquisite and powerful works.”
Bradley says exhibition visitors of all ages can look upon the work of Marie Hull and become entranced. “Visual art, like music, has immediate effects upon us all, young and old alike. The scope and diversity of her work also provides something for everyone, from poignant still lifes to moving portraits to vibrant abstracts,” she said.
Following its presentation in Jackson, the exhibition is expected to travel to the Ogden Museum in New Orleans.
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October 2015 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 37