Meadows Museum presents The Frances Golden Ware Gift. Landscapes of the Southwest, an exhibition on view June 3-August 19, 2012.
The family of the late Frances Golden Ware honored her with a gift to SMU’s University Art Collection of seven 20th-century paintings purchased by Mrs. Ware’s parents from the artists. Mrs. Ware’s children Elizabeth Ware Hennessy, John Roscoe Ware and David Lochridge Ware continued a four-generation family legacy at SMU with their gift and significantly strengthened SMU’s Regionalist art holdings.
Bert Geer Phillips (American, 1868-1956), Cottonwoods, c. 1935, oil on panel. University Art Collection, SMU, Dallas. Gift of Elizabeth (Bettina) Ware Hennessy, Dr. John Roscoe Ware and Dr. David Lochridge Ware, in honor of their mother, Frances Golden Ware, and her parents, John Roscoe Golden and Elise Hay Golden, 2011. UAC.2011.01.04
The exhibition includes oil paintings by Robert Julian Onderdonk, Elmer Page Turner, Ila McAfee, Bert Greer Phillips, Olin Travis and pastels by Frank Reaugh. Mrs. Ware had fond childhood memories of visiting with her parents the Taos studios of artists Bert Phillips, Ila McAfee and her husband Elmer Page Turner, as well as the Oak Cliff studio of Frank Reaugh.
Members of Mrs. Ware’s family have played important roles at SMU since the University’s founding. Her grandfather, Stephen J. Hay, as Dallas mayor from 1907-11 was instrumental in the bond election campaign that secured Dallas as the home of SMU. Mary Hay, Mrs. Ware’s grandmother, became in 1923 dean of women at SMU. Elise Hay Golden, Mrs. Ware’s mother, taught voice from 1919 until 1957 as a member of SMU’s music faculty. In addition, her father, John Roscoe Golden, served on the SMU Board of Trustees.
A 1944 SMU graduate, Mrs. Ware continued the family legacy as an actively involved student and alumnae, serving on the SMU Alumni Board, the Dedman College Executive Board and the Friends of the SMU Libraries Board. Her family history is chronicled in the Elise Hay Golden Archives, which includes 3,000 family letters, photos and scrapbooks Mrs. Ware gave to SMU’s DeGolyer Library.
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