1930s Olive DeLuce paintings donated to Northwest

dleuce paingings

(From left) Arts and Sciences Development Officer Teresa Macias;
Dr. Kim Spradling, chairman of the Department of Art; University
Archivist Cathy Palmer; and Dr. George Myers of Hilton Head, S.C.,
pose with an oil painting by Olive DeLuce, who taught art at Northwest
from 1915-1955. Myers inherited the painting and three similar
artworks from his mother, a Northwest alumna, and recently
donated them to the University.

The Northwest Department of Art has accepted a gift of four paintings created by longtime Professor of Art Olive DeLuce in the late 1930s.

Mounted in gilt frames, the oil-on-board waterscapes were purchased by Ruth Kramer Myers, a Northwest alumna who graduated in 1933. Myers' son, Dr. George Myers of Hilton Head, S.C., inherited the paintings and donated them to the University through the Northwest Foundation.

Dr. Myers traveled to Maryville on Wednesday, Oct. 17, and presented the artworks to Kim Spradling, chairman of the Department of Art; University Archivist Cathy Palmer; and Arts and Sciences Development Officer Teresa Macias.

Olive DeLuce, who died in 1970, joined the Northwest faculty in 1915 and was instrumental in developing the fledgling Fine Arts Department, serving as its chair until her retirement in 1955.

Active in both campus and community affairs, DeLuce played a key role in establishing the University's permanent art collection.

DeLuce helped the graduating class of 1939 obtain a print titled "Cradling Wheat" from famed Kansas City painter Thomas Hart Benton. A similar acquisition, a large mosaic by Jan Roderick Carroll given by the class of 1965, adorns the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building's main staircase.

DeLuce's dream of establishing a space where the University's growing collection could be displayed was realized soon after her death, when the DeLuce Gallery was established near the front entrance of the building named in her honor.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone (660) 562-1704
Fax (660) 562-1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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