Doug and Lynn McCorkle Present Blanche Lazzell: West Virginia Modernist

Doug and Lynn McCorkle Present Blanche Lazzell: West Virginia Modernist opens at the Huntington Museum of Art June 5 and runs through September, 5 2021

Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956) is arguably the most noteworthy artist that West Virginia has produced. She was an accomplished painter and teacher, and her works are highly sought after today by collectors and museums. An independent and free-spirited woman, she moved seamlessly between the hills of her native state of West Virginia, the Salons of Europe, and her adopted home and studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Lazzell was among the first Americans to produce abstract prints, expressing the ideas of the Cubists and other European modernists in a series of color woodblock prints that was created in the mid-1920s. She joined with her colleagues in the Provincetown Printers Group to help pioneer the “one block” method of printing, a process that allowed the artist a great deal of freedom in the use of color, tone and texture. The subjects of her work include images of her home state of West Virginia and the bustling seaside environment of Provincetown, as well as the brightly colored flowers that adorned her garden. Her body of work, with its bold forms and strong colors, demonstrates her successful commitment to the modernist aesthetic and serves as a fitting expression of the exuberance and vitality of her own life.

For this exhibition, the Huntington Museum of Art is excited to partner with members of the extended family of Blanche Lazzell to showcase works from their private collections, including several of her renowned woodblock prints as well as paintings. These works will be accompanied by objects from the HMA collection, as well as examples from other regional public and private collections.

This exhibit is presented by Doug and Lynn McCorkle.

This exhibit is presented with support from The Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.

This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.