Expressions of Color: Paintings by Evelyn Dawson

Expressions of Color: Paintings by Evelyn Dawson celebrates the power and effects of color in art and highlights a selection of paintings by a twentieth century artist who blended business and art throughout a long career in the fashion industry. Best known as the fashion designer “Suzy Perette,” the very popular and affordable American label of New York’s Lombardy Dress Company, Evelyn Dawson (1909–1990) was also a dancer, writer, and artist. This exhibition offers a fresh look at her work that is found across campus, a gift to the university in 1995 from her second husband, W&L alumnus Larry Wynn ’34. 

For Dawson, color was a primary feature and motivator in her designs and in her artwork. Influenced by two twentieth-century art movements, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, Dawson brushed, poured, and spattered layers of acrylic paint on canvas or on the then-new product called Plexiglas© to create fields of color. She called her collective works “inscapes” and stated they were reflections of her inner psyche, created without subjects or models. When she completed her paintings, Dawson stepped back to observe her emotional and physical reactions to the colorful works. Only then did she apply titles based on her responses. 

On view in the McCarthy Gallery in Holekamp Hall, the exhibition was curated by Patricia Hobbs, curator of art emeritus. 

Previous Exhibition

• Inscapes
• Gallery Reflections and Inscapes Playlist