Beverly Hallam and Utagawa Hiroshige

Beverly Hallam has been an explorer in the arts for decades. Utilizing abstract and representational painting, airbrush, assemblage, monotypes, collage, photography, and now digital art as well, she has pushed the boundaries of how art can be made. In the 1950s, she was a pioneer in the development of what is now known as acrylic paint, formerly polyvinyl acetate. She attended and eventually taught at the Massachusetts College of Art. Her work is represented in collections throughout the U.S. Here her two studies give a sense of the evolution of her lively and colorful composition, and some of the issues she fully resolved in the final painting.

Her gift of the Hiroshige in 2003 was the last of the ten woodcut prints by this Japanese artist (born Ando Hiroshige) that have come into the permanent collection of the Museum of Art. Along with Hokusai, this artist is recognized as one of the two greatest masters of the Japanese landscape print. This print is the only one of the series of ten in our collection that was an outright gift, the others having been purchased from Japanese dealers over many years.