Visitors to the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM) will get to view the art of longtime Fort Smith resident Dede Hutcheson and her two daughters, Robyn Horn and Karen Hutcheson, beginning March 13. The exhibition A Family Affair: Three Artists, Three Visions, One Family will last through June 21, 2020. A reception with the artists will be held at RAM Thursday, April 9 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Dede Hutcheson, whose art career has included studying under the first director of the Fort Smith Art Center – Casimir Rutkowski – in the 1970s, will share her many oil paintings of landscapes. She has enjoyed painting en plein air – in the open air – during her travels through the United States and around the world.
Sculptures by Robin Horn will be exhibited in a neighboring room in the Marta Jones Gallery. Horn began sculpting wood in the early 1980s and was named an Arkansas Living Treasure by the Department of Arkansas Heritage in 2008. Her towering sculpture, Already Set in Motion, made with red wood and black dye, is a fixture on the grounds of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. Another piece, entitled Keystone, graces the front lawn of RAM.
Karen Hutcheson, who like her sister graduated from Hendrix College, will display her oil and acrylic paintings of abstract images in the third section of the gallery.
“RAM is honored and thrilled to be able to share the works of these three accomplished artists who are admired and well-loved by so many citizens of their home state of Arkansas,” Louis Meluso, RAM Executive Director, says. “This exhibition will be a truly sensational viewing experience.”
The settings for Dede Hutcheson’s bright and colorful paintings include Monet’s Garden at Giverny, Laguna Beach, Lake Tahoe, and a Texas ranch.
A Family Affair
Hutcheson says she has been painting “forever.”
“As a young mother, I was always painting,” Hutcheson says. “My children’s friends’ homes might have smelled like soup, but mine smelled like turpentine.”
Arkansas Colleges of Health Education is serving as the presenting sponsor of A Family Affair.
“The Hutchesons have lifted up art and made it accessible to Arkansans the way we at ACHE are striving to lift up excellent healthcare and make it accessible to all Arkansans,” Kyle Parker, CEO of ACHE, says. “We encourage everyone to see this exhibition. It will do your heart some good, most assuredly.”
RAM is open free to the public. Hours of the museum are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. RAM is located at 1601 Rogers Avenue in the circa 1963, mid-century modern Superior Federal Bank building. Arvest donated the building to the Fort Smith Art Center in 2009. The center transitioned to the new Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in 2013.
For more information, call RAM at 479-784-2787 or visit its website, www.fsram.org.
