Murray Dessner: Illuminations

Exhibition Info
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Works on paper by the late Murray Dessner, beloved PAFA faculty member and acclaimed artist

Opening reception: April 26, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Celebrated artist and art educator Murray Dessner (1934-2012) was born in Philadelphia and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he went on to teach painting and drawing from 1970 to 2012, shepherding and inspiring countless young artists.

Dessner was best known as a painter of large-scale, luminous, non-objective works on canvas. The paintings presented in this exhibition, however, are rarer: smaller in scale and on paper, but still showing his continuous exploration of dimension and light.

He had over 20 solo exhibitions in galleries in New York, Miami, Tucson and Philadelphia, as well as over 30 group exhibitions. His paintings are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PAFA, and the Woodmere Museum.  His work is also represented in other institutional collections such as the Cornell Fine Art Center in Florida, Pacific University in Oregon, Colgate University in New York, Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and Widener University Law School in Delaware.

As a PAFA student, Dessner received prestigious awards including the Cresson Traveling Scholarship and the Scheidt Prize.