The public is invited to join the Muscatine Art Center in welcoming Carol Ehlers, art history speaker, as she presents a 45 minute lecture on the art of French Neo-Impressionist Paul Signac. The lecture will take place Thursday, April 25 at 5:30 pm in the Muscatine Art Center’s Music Room. Admission is free.

Paul Signac was born in Paris on November 11, 1863 to a well to do family and grew up in the cultural district of Montmartre. By the age of 18, Signac studied architecture before deciding to pursue a career as a painter after attending an exhibit of Claude Monet's work. He chose to be an Impressionist painter because of his liking for Monet, the outdoors, originality, and independence.  He had no formal art instruction but devoted himself to the study of the works of Manet, Monet, Degas, and Caillebotte.

In 1884 Signac met Georges Seurat at the first Société des Artistes Indépendants and was struck by Seurat’s meticulous methods. By 1885, under Seurat’s influence, he abandoned the short brushstrokes of impressionism to experiment with scientifically juxtaposed small dots of pure color based on the laws of color theory established by the chemist Eugène Chevreul. These dots were intended to combine and in the viewer's eye, the defining feature of pointillism, a branch of Neo-Impressionism that Seurat and Signac successfully coined.

By 1892, he moved from Paris to St Tropez, and he was painting almost entirely in his studio from sketches and watercolors originally made in front of the scenes he found in the course of his travels. As an avid sailor, he went on a number of cruises, which took him to various ports in France, Italy, Holland and Constantinople.

Signac was president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants from 1908 until his death at age seventy-two in 1935. He encouraged the next generation of young artists by exhibiting their controversial works. He inspired Henri Matisse and André Derain in particular, thus playing a decisive role in the evolution of the Fauvist movement.

In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center’s collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser. The paintings are on permanent display in the Laura Musser Mansion.

EVENT DETAILS:

Lecture: Paul Signac: Scientific Theory and Pointillism

Who: Carol Ehlers

When: Thursday, April 25 2013

Time: 5:30 PM

Where: The Muscatine Art Center’s Music Room

Admission to this program is FREE.

Please contact Katy Doherty, Program Coordinator, with any questions or concerns at

563-263-8282 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Muscatine Art Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday from 10 AM to 7 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 PM Admission is FREE.

Enjoy an intimate evening of literature and music during the second Brucemore Arts Share on May 14 at 7:00 p.m. The event continues the tradition started by Brucemore’s second family, the Douglases, who frequently entertained guests and celebrated local artists in the Mansion’s Great Hall. Graduate students from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Andres Carlstein and Anna Morrison, will read original fiction and poetry. Doctoral candidates at the University of Iowa, Akilah Bryant and Jessica Altfillisch, will follow with a flute and viola duo.  A light reception will be held after the hour-long program. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets purchased in advance are $7 per adult and $5 per Brucemore member or student.  All tickets at the door (if available) are $10. Space is limited; purchase tickets by visiting www.brucemore.org or calling (319) 362-7375. This performance is made possible by a Better Futures for Iowans grant through The University of Iowa’s Office of the Provost.

Andrés Carlstein is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Iowa and the author of Odyssey to Ushuaia, a Motorcycling Adventure from New York to Tierra del Fuego. He is a 2012 MacDowell Colony Fellow and Yaddo Residency Fellow, and his short stories have been finalists for the 2013 Doug Fir Fiction Prize and the 2013 Gertrude Stein Fiction Award. Carlstein holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was an Arts Fellow. He lives in Iowa City and is working on a novel.

Julia Anna Morrison is a second-year Master of Fine Arts candidate at the Iowa Writers' Workshop from Atlanta, Georgia.  She teaches creative writing to undergraduates at the University of Iowa.  Julia's work has recently appeared in Redivider and Gulf Coast.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Akilah Bryant is a flute performer, teacher, and clinician currently living in Iowa City. In 2012, Akilah received the prestigious Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship from the University of Iowa, where she is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Pedagogy. She also holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Alabama. In addition to extensive performing throughout Alabama and the Midwest, Akilah has been the recipient of many awards including those from the Nelson Hauenstein Memorial Fellowship, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Josie Etta Daley Memorial Fund, Tuesday Musicale, and the Birmingham Music Clubs Guild.

Violist Jessica Altfillisch is a doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa and Director of the CR Suzuki Academy, LLC, a violin and viola school in Cedar Rapids. Jessica has served as resident violist in the Aiyanna Piano Quartet, the University of Iowa Center for New Music Ensemble, and is currently violist of the Lierre Duo. As an undergraduate at the University of Northern Iowa, Jessica performed with the Northern Iowa Chamber Orchestra in Moscow and St. Petersburg. She finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas, and has since appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in throughout the Midwest. Jessica has also played professionally as a member of the Des Moines, Dubuque, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestras.

About Arts Share

Arts Share continues The University of Iowa's long tradition of sharing creative resources from the Division of Performing Arts (music, dance, theater), the School of Art and Art History, and the Writers' Workshop. Arts Share aims to strengthen the arts in underserved areas, reaching out to provide access to life-enriching arts experiences throughout Iowa. Through this program, artists have traveled as far as Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Buffalo Center, Keokuk, and Lamoni to present interactive performances, workshops, readings, residencies, master classes, and more.

About Brucemore

Experience Brucemore, an unparalleled blend of tradition and culture, located at 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the heart of the historic 26-acre estate stands a nineteenth-century mansion filled with the stories of three Cedar Rapids families.  Concerts, theater, programs, and tours enliven the site and celebrate the heritage of a community.  For more information, call (319) 362-7375 or visit www.brucemore.org.