05/07/2015
Go check out the UT Downtown Gallery's latest exhibit featuring the Civil War Series of artist Richard J. LeFevre. The exhibition runs through June 27th.
Richard J. LeFevre was born in Rochester, New York, in 1931. He studied with Hans Hoffman at the Rochester Institute of Technology and successfully operated the LeFevre Studio there for a decade. In 1967, he moved to the South to teach art at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Although his great, great, great grandfather was first cousin to Andrew Jackson, he was not immediately interested in nineteenth-century history. As his Tennessee friends introduced him to interesting stories from the Civil War, he began to seek more knowledge about the period. LeFevre’s quest to present the Civil War through artistic image was finally launched when his wife Carol presented him with a book containing personal accounts of the war. Lefevre spent the remainder of his life making paintings about this war and describing its extraordinary impact on our nation. Richard LeFevre died in September 2000. It was his desire that the Civil War Series be maintained as a coherent presentation of history. His bequest of the complete series to the University of Tennessee’s Ewing Gallery permanent collection ensures that the entire body of work will continue to be available for audiences throughout the United States and for future generations. Richard J. LeFevre’s Civil War Series presents the history of the War Between the States (1861 – 1865) through works on paper that depict 32 of the war’s most significant battles. By combining his love of history and his skill as an illustrator, LeFevre used inventive mixed-media techniques to create these powerful images inspired by his personal investigation into that terrible and definitive era. He sought to authenticate the audience experience by incorporating images from period publications such as Harper’s Weekly and Leslie’s Illustrated. Century-old woodcut engravings, made from sketches by Civil War artists who were present at the battles, were flash-framed onto paper with a copier. They were further manipulated with watercolor, pencil, and collage techniques. Some contain photographic tintype images of prominent battle figures. Military leaders, such as Grant, Lee, Meade, Stuart and Farragut are represented in the context of events pertinent to each battle. Throughout the series, LeFevre includes quotes from legendary figures and battle-weary foot soldiers. Technical drawings of engines and ironclads describe precise details of war machines that accompanied soldiers in battle. The paintings are allegorical in nature and are presented in chronological order. The Gettysburg triptych is the centerpiece of the exhibit. The Civil War Series, which took LeFevre four years to complete, portrays the Civil War without bias toward the Union or the Confederacy. The paintings premiered at The United States Civil War Center in the Foster Hall Gallery at Louisiana State University in 1998. On several occasions, LeFevre created dynamic public presentations, augmenting images from the series with his own spoken narrative and live, period music. He related both the timeline of events and the nature of the war experience, combining information gathered from actual battle sites with the rich volume of knowledge gleaned from the hundreds of books and documents he had read.
