Final Exhibit of Meadows Museum's
20th Anniversary Year: Portraits by Jean Despujols

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (11/96)
Contact: Judy Godfrey, Meadows Museum, 318-869-5169
or Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

SHREVEPORT, LA -- The Shreveport Art Guild closes out the Meadows Museum's 20th anniversary year with an unusual exhibit of portraits of well-known Shreveporters painted by the French artist Jean Despujols.

Over 100 portraits were painted in Shreveport by Despujols from 1942 to 1963. The portraits are still in private homes in Shreveport and across the United States.

Despujols is best known for the Indochina Collection at Centenary College -- which is the largest collection of French colonial art in the world. The works in this collection were completed in a scant 20 months and represent only a moment in a career that spanned more than half a century.

The 53 Shreveport portraits on exhibit will provide another facet of the versatility of French born Jean Despujols.

The exhibit opens Sunday, Nov. 10 and closes Dec. 15. Hours are noon - 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Meadows Museum will open during the three days following Thanksgiving Day.

Two special slide presentations are scheduled in conjunction with the exhibit. On Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. Dr. Dana Kress will talk about "Jean Despujols -- Photographer." Dr. Kress is associate curator of the Indochina Collection at the Meadows Museum and is assistant professor of French at Centenary.

On Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. Barrie Tinkler will speak on "Facing Up: The Art of Portraiture." Tinkler is a nationally known portrait artist.

Admission is free to all events.

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