James A. Michener Art Museum to Feature Works by Herbert Pullinger

One of America’s foremost wood engravers depicts everyday life 90+ years ago.

(Doylestown, PA) The James A. Michener Art Museum exhibition, Spirit of the Everyday: Prints by Herbert Pullinger, opens on December 20, 2014 and will be on view through March 29, 2015. The exhibition program in the Bette and Nelson Pfundt Gallery is presented by Vivian Banta and Robert Field.

The exhibition features a select group of wood engravings and wood blocks by the artist (1878-1961) drawn from the Michener’s collection of Pullinger engravings and woodblocks, and gifted to the Museum by Ann and Martin Snyder. The works depict landscapes and scenes of houses, stores, barns, post offices, bridges, canals, lighthouses, coal breakers, and steel furnaces that the artist encountered in Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the 1920s and ’30s.

Emerging as one of America’s foremost wood engravers during the 1920s, Pullinger was born and lived in Philadelphia and spent many summers in Lumberville, Pa. He studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts (University of the Arts) and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and taught graphic arts and watercolor at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art.

Constance Kimmerle, curator of collections at the Michener notes, “Expressing the ‘spirit of the everyday’ was a genuine concern for many American artists at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Herbert Pullinger was no exception.” “As the works in the show reveal, whether he was rendering a snow scene in rural Bucks County or a dynamic industrial scene in Pittsburgh, Pullinger’s creations moved beyond the mere description of a place to fully capture its distinctive spirit and vital energy,” added Kimmerle.

About The James A. Michener Art Museum
The James A. Michener Art Museum collects, preserves, interprets and exhibits American Art, with a focus on art of the Bucks County region. The Museum presents changing exhibitions that explore a variety of artistic expressions, and offers a diverse program of educational activities that seek to develop a lifelong involvement in the arts as well as nurture a wide range of audiences. We also seek to educate our community about nationally and internationally known Bucks County artists of all creative disciplines. The James A. Michener Art Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

The James A. Michener Art Museum is located at 138 South Pine St., Doylestown, PA. The Museum is open Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm; Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sunday noon – 5:00 pm. For more information, visit MichenerArtMuseum.org or call 215.340.9800.