SPEED ART MUSEUM PRESENTS KENTUCKY WOMEN: HELEN LAFRANCE The survey of the artist's six
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decade career on display
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now through April 30, 2023 LaFrance, who began painting in her 40s and passed away in 2020 at the age of 101, was a prolific figure in American folk art who captured memories of small-town domestic and community life, as well as biblical visionary scenes, through her paintings, murals, quilts, wooden sculptures, dolls, and collages. Drawing upon several of these mediums, the exhibition features more than 35 works showcasing LaFrance's wide ranging body of work, from glimpses of everyday life to powerful civic and spiritual moments. A highlight of the exhibition is its selection of LaFrance's celebrated sense-memory paintings recalling moments from everyday life-church picnics, shared meals, parades, and funerals-including a painting acquired by the Speed in 2021, Quilting (1998), which depicts a group of women working on a quilt. Drawing from private and public local and regional collection loans, the exhibition documents her western Kentucky rural and small-town experiences rooted in Mayfield and around Graves County. Top: Quilting, oil on canvas, Loan courtesy of Bruce Shelton Bottom: River Baptism, oil on canvas, Loan courtesy of Bruce Shelton
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