Intelligent Eye, Reality Re-Seen: Recent Paintings

The oil paintings featured in this catalog are the culmination of over forty years of making art in a variety of media: watercolors, oil paintings, egg tempera, and printmaking, as well as several large figurative murals. Created by William Baggett, Jr. (b. 1946), professor and chair of the department of art and design at the University of Southern Mississippi, these paintings represent the work of a mature artist at the peak of his creative powers.

After achieving celebrity and success, especially in the South for his murals, in 2006 Baggett returned to the smaller rectangular panels he had worked on for most of his life. A long familiarity with oil painting and manipulating color and shapes on a flat rectangle provided the opportunity for him to develop a more personal iconography free from preconceived ideas or limits.

This catalog includes full-color reproductions of Baggett's work completed between 2006 and 2010 with some examples of his earlier pieces to create a context for Baggett's pictorial sensibility. The catalog accompanied a traveling exhibit to showcase Baggett's work at several museums in the United States. Text is provided by Renata Karlin, art historian and critic, who examines Baggett's work both now and throughout his entire career.