Work of the Week at the Asheville Art Museum

Asheville Art Museum, 2 Pack Square, Asheville North Carolina. Pierre Daura, Chickens, circa 1963, watercolor and tempera painting on paper, 15.25 x 12.13 inches. Asheville Art Museum Collection, Gift of Martha R. Daura, 1998.17.08.22   Daura's Chickens was painted around 1963, near the end of his life, while living in Virginia. It is painted in the American Scene-Rural style, where artists depicted scenes of typical American life and landscapes, reflecting the country's nationalism and isolationism in the face of the social changes between the wars. Daura's overall style can be characterized as "romantic realism, combined with a gentle expressionism and imaginative abstraction."

This watercolor is on display in the Museum's exhibition Looking Back: Celebrating 60 Years of Collecting at the Asheville Art Museum , in the Urban and Rural Gallery. Daura's daughter Martha donated this work to the Museum. Come into the Museum to see this vibrant work in person to welcome the Spring and say farewell to Winter!