The show features more than 50 etchings by artists including Thomas
Moran, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Francis Seymour Haden, Henry
Farrer, Charles Adams Platt and Mary Nimmo Moran.

A free, public opening reception will be held in the museum at 3:30
p.m. Friday, May 9.

The Lee Collection is composed of more than 300 etchings and books from
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including works by many of the
most important artists of the period. Though focused on American
prints, the collection also contains an array of etchings by notable
European artists of the time. The collection was given to the UIMA in
2006 and joins more than 6,000 works on paper in the museum's permanent
collection.

"The Lee gift greatly enhances an area of the UIMA collection, making
it a wonderful research-oriented group," Kathleen Edwards, UIMA chief
curator, said.

"The Power of Line" offers a glimpse into the Lee Collection, with
emphasis on its dominant themes and strengths. Ranging from scenes of
everyday life to maritime vistas and landscapes, the works in the show
provide an overview of Etching Revival practices.

Beginning in England and France in the 1840s and 1850s, the Etching
Revival drew on traditions from the 17th century, when etching was an
important artistic process for Rembrandt and other artists. After that
time, etching became a reproductive tool until the revival artists
began using it for original prints. The movement spread to the United
States in the 1870s.

"Etching Revival artists looked at etching in a different way,
exploiting the medium's creative potential to make original works that
invoked moods and emotions," Edwards said.

"Etching appealed to artists largely because it had an organic quality
similar to drawing," added UI Professor of Art History Joni Kinsey,
who, with Edwards, organized the exhibition with students from Kinsey's
Fall 2008 course "The Art Museum: Theory and Practice."

"Many painters regarded etchings as an important complement to their
work in oils and watercolors and called themselves 'painter-etchers' to
emphasize that their prints were original works of art rather than
reproductions."

One of the most prominent etchers was Thomas Moran, the famed landscape
painter. The Moran family is well represented in the Lee collection,
and more than 10 works by members of the Moran family are included in
the exhibition. Also on display will be the only known impression of
Stephen Parrish's 1880 etching "Fish Houses, Rocky Neck."

Exhibitions in the Hoover-Paul Gallery for 2008 are sponsored by Alan
F. and Ann B. January. Student curators for the exhibition were Kristin
Beisler, Melinda Brocka, Elizabeth Crispin, Ranelle Lueth, Meagan
McCollum, Emily Miller, Katherine Nash, Brittany Piehl, David Riep,
Brittany Savolainen, Leslie Smith, Jenahlee Vittetoe and Megan Wright.

The UI Museum of Art is located on North Riverside Drive in Iowa City.
The museum is open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and
noon to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Admission is free. Public metered
parking is available in UI parking lots west and north of the museum.

For more information on the UI Museum of Art visit
http://www.uiowa.edu/uima.

For UI arts information and calendar updates, visit
http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa. To receive UI arts news by e-mail, go to
http://list.uiowa.edu/archives/acr-news.html, click the link "Join or
leave the list (or change settings)" and follow the instructions.

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Arts Center Relations, 300 Plaza
Centre One, Suite 351, Iowa City, IA 52242-2500