The Henry Luce Foundation has awarded a $350,000 grant to the Arkansas Arts Center, the state’s leader in international, visual and performing arts. The grant will support the complete research, conservation and integration of the Art Center’s John Marin drawings into the AAC collection. 290 drawings and watercolors by American modern artist John Marin (1870-1953) were donated to the Arkansas Arts Center in February of 2014 by the artist’s daughter-in-law, Norma Marin. The earliest drawings in the collection are architectural renderings and drawings of the artist’s native New Jersey and of Philadelphia, where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The collection then follows Marin through his years in Paris just after the turn of the century and his return to America as a modernist. Many of these works have never been exhibited and are largely unknown to both scholars and the public.

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