A reception to mark the closing of the exhibition “Jennings Tofel: Drawing Genesis” is planned for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.
The “Drawing Genesis” exhibition is curated by Dr. David A. Lewis, professor of art history at Stephen F. Austin State University. Tofel was a well-respected avant-garde American artist who regularly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York and Chicago, as well as Paris, France, according to Lewis. From 1920s through the 1950s, Tofel’s solo exhibitions were reviewed in Art News, Art Digest and other magazines, as well as in the major New York newspapers. Since his death, two monographs, including a lavish Abrams book, have been published. His work is represented in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirschhorn Museum, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, among other notable collections. A few pen-and-ink and ink-wash drawings executed variously in a symbolist or expressionistic style are also included in the exhibition, which closes on Friday, Jan. 20.
Admission to the exhibition and reception, which is sponsored in part by William Arscott and the Friends of the Visual Arts, is free. The Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic art gallery, is located at 129 E. Main St. Gallery hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call (936) 468-5500.
