Exhibition, “The Creative Legacy of David Newton” Opens March 23
The exhibition “Onward: The Creative Legacy of DAVID NEWTON” will open on Friday, March 23, and run through May 4 in the Guilford College Art Gallery in Hege Library on campus, with an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. A beloved member of the college’s art department, Newton succumbed to cancer on April 14, 2011. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 2-5 p.m. on Sundays during the regular academic year.
It is the goal of this exhibition, accompanied by a catalog with reflections on his legacy, to pay tribute to this talented and influential artist and teacher by presenting a selection of his art spanning four decades of his career. Co-curated by founding director and curator TERRY HAMMOND ’81 and HEATHER VON BODUNGEN ’12, the exhibition will examine the range of his art including paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. More than 100 works of art have been gathered from private collections, public institutions and the artist’s estate.
The design and production of the accompanying catalog has been the capstone Quaker Leadership Scholars project for von Bodungen, who was Newton’s advisee and student in his First Year Experience class, “Art and Inspiration.” His guidance and their friendship continued through their following years together at Guilford. As a result of a grant Heather received from the Clarence & Lilly Pickett Endowment for Quaker Leadership, proceeds from catalog sales will benefit a scholarship in Newton’s name at the Art Students League of New York.
“The opening date, March 23, is significant, as it was David’s favorite and special date that he noted every year,” said Hammond. “According to his wife, Suzanne, it was the day he left home and began to travel and explore the world. He felt that he became an adult and free to be himself. We are delighted that Suzanne and members of David’s family will be attending the opening reception.”
Newton was born in 1953 in Oakland, California. In the 1970′s he moved to New York to study painting at the Art Students League and printmaking at Pratt Graphics. He served as exhibition preparator at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art from 1990 through 1998, and also taught art at Moses Brown, a private Friends School in Providence, R.I. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Bard College in 1997. A widely traveled artist, he exhibited in several galleries on the East Coast, in the South, and in France and China.
Newton joined the Guilford College art department faculty in 2003 and achieved tenure and an associate professorship in 2009. During his seven years at the college he earned two distinguished awards: the Bruce B. Stewart Award for Excellence in Teaching by an Untenured Faculty Member in 2007 and Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award for the State of North Carolina granted by the National Academic Advising Association in 2010. His work is represented in numerous public and private collections including the Weatherspoon Art Museum and Guilford College Art Gallery, The Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, and the Museum of the City of New York.
