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Fitzpatrick's "Most Important Show"
by Dan Smith
Local artist Eric Fitzpatrick is at the center of what he calls "the most important show of my career [and] my first Museum show."
Eric Fitzpatrick
Detail from "Good Old Boys," a 2004 oil on canvas by Eric Fitzpatrick
Eric Fitzpatrick has arguably been the most popular Roanoke-grown artist for 30 years and July 12-Sept. 23, he is at the center of what he calls "the most important show of my career [and] my first Museum show."
The show is "Southern Culture Series" and will open at the Eleanor Wilson Museum at Hollins University with a reception Sept. 12, 6-8 p.m. Fitzpatrick says, "It will be a provocative show, challenging long held Southern beliefs, but it will do it with whimsical style," as is Fitzpatrick's custom. Some of the themes though are quite serious.
Those themes, he says, explore "the way Southerners are taught to view their past and its associated defining stereotypes" including revival preachers and front porch musicians. "Bordering on caricature, this work exaggerates these stereotypes, forcing the viewers to confront their own (often unconscious) cultural assumptions.
"I know that this show really does focus on some southern beliefs that need conversation. I've been painting on these 27 images since 2004 It is the major thrust of my work thus far."
Fitzpatrick says of the pictures, several of which are new, "I think the setting of the big room at Eleanor Wilson will really let folks get back and see [the works] anew. There are a couple of new ones including a charcoal of the Charlottesville Riots that will make folks think, for sure. The irony is that these works are more timely now than ever, since our context--as a nation--has shifted."
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).