GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Born in Clifton, Texas, Merritt Mauzey was raised on a cotton farm in Oak Creek Valley, Nolan County, where he absorbed first hand the planting, nurturing, and harvesting processes. He was married in 1918 and two years later acquired his own cotton farm. This venture did not prove to be a success, and Mauzey was forced to sell his land and move to Sweetwater, Texas, where he worked as a clerk for a cotton company. In 1927 he moved with his family to Dallas and took a position with J. Kahn and Company, a cotton exporter. At the same time he rekindled an old interest in art and began formal study with Frank Klepper at the Dallas Art Institute.
His artistic debut was the exhibition of two works at the Texas Centennial in 1936. Around the same time he began a series of works based on his knowledge of the cotton industry. Mauzey was one of the charter members of the Lone Star Printmakers, and by 1940 he had become one of the first artists in the area to own a lithographic press, teaching himself printing. Shortly after this he taught lithography at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and began exhibiting much more widely, winning several awards. Carl Zigrosser, one of the most well-known historians of American printmaking, became an early admirer of Mauzey's work and encouraged his advancement. In 1946 Mauzey was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, the first Texas artist to be so honored. He used it to create a series of lithographs about Texas, which he executed with the cooperation of master printers Lawrence Barrett in Colorado Springs and George Miller in Woodstock and New York. After his retirement in 1962, Mauzey became an active supporter of the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas, which possesses a large collection of his work.
Adapted from
Rick Stewart, Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and Their Circle (Dallas Museum of Arts: Dallas, TX, 1985), 177-78.
NOTES
No education file found for Mauzey.
p. 100 Lone Star Regionalism, Rick Stewart
Merritt Mauzey, who was the same age as Hogue, was born in Clifton, Texas, and came to Dallas in 1927 to work as a cotton exporter. Like Charles Bowling, he was employed full time but was also fully committed to being an artist. By 1934 he was enrolled in evening classes and became a charter member of the Lone Star Printmakers group. One of his prints shown in th first circuit, Cotton Yard, displays the artist's primitivistic or naive approach, which became increasingly refined and purposeful in his later work.
Neighbors is a fine example of Mauzey's stylization of the landscape. In many respects, the folk feeling of such a work, whether conscious or otherwise, was ideally suited to the Texas regional aesthetic. The painting depicts a gentle contrast between the old and the new, between handwork and mechanization; the contrasting philosophies existed side by side, as the title implied, in the Texas that the artist had come to understand.
p 112 Merritt Mauzey as printmaker
p121 Mauzey instructor at DMFA art school in 1942 (that's all it says about it)
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Mauzey, Merritt, Texas State Historical Association Biography~Read more about Merritt Mauzey on the the Handbook of Texas Online (published by the Texas State Historical Association).
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- In 1955 Merritt Mauzey wrote and illustrated several books for children including Cotton Farm Boy and Texas Ranch Boy.
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
set operator as OR
apply to objects where constituent_id equals 802
apply to constituents where id equals 802
Category
rules_operator
OR
General Description
Born in Clifton, Texas, Merritt Mauzey was raised on a cotton farm in Oak Creek Valley, Nolan County, where he absorbed first hand the planting, nurturing, and harvesting processes. He was married in 1918 and two years later acquired his own cotton farm. This venture did not prove to be a success, and Mauzey was forced to sell his land and move to Sweetwater, Texas, where he worked as a clerk for a cotton company. In 1927 he moved with his family to Dallas and took a position with J. Kahn and Company, a cotton exporter. At the same time he rekindled an old interest in art and began formal study with Frank Klepper at the Dallas Art Institute.
His artistic debut was the exhibition of two works at the Texas Centennial in 1936. Around the same time he began a series of works based on his knowledge of the cotton industry. Mauzey was one of the charter members of the Lone Star Printmakers, and by 1940 he had become one of the first artists in the area to own a lithographic press, teaching himself printing. Shortly after this he taught lithography at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and began exhibiting much more widely, winning several awards. Carl Zigrosser, one of the most well-known historians of American printmaking, became an early admirer of Mauzey's work and encouraged his advancement. In 1946 Mauzey was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, the first Texas artist to be so honored. He used it to create a series of lithographs about Texas, which he executed with the cooperation of master printers Lawrence Barrett in Colorado Springs and George Miller in Woodstock and New York. After his retirement in 1962, Mauzey became an active supporter of the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas, which possesses a large collection of his work.
Adapted from
Rick Stewart, Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and Their Circle (Dallas Museum of Arts: Dallas, TX, 1985), 177-78.
Fun Facts
- In 1955 Merritt Mauzey wrote and illustrated several books for children including Cotton Farm Boy and Texas Ranch Boy.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Mauzey, Merritt, Texas State Historical Association Biography~Read more about Merritt Mauzey on the the Handbook of Texas Online (published by the Texas State Historical Association).
Notes
No education file found for Mauzey.
p. 100 Lone Star Regionalism, Rick Stewart
Merritt Mauzey, who was the same age as Hogue, was born in Clifton, Texas, and came to Dallas in 1927 to work as a cotton exporter. Like Charles Bowling, he was employed full time but was also fully committed to being an artist. By 1934 he was enrolled in evening classes and became a charter member of the Lone Star Printmakers group. One of his prints shown in th first circuit, Cotton Yard, displays the artist's primitivistic or naive approach, which became increasingly refined and purposeful in his later work.
Neighbors is a fine example of Mauzey's stylization of the landscape. In many respects, the folk feeling of such a work, whether conscious or otherwise, was ideally suited to the Texas regional aesthetic. The painting depicts a gentle contrast between the old and the new, between handwork and mechanization; the contrasting philosophies existed side by side, as the title implied, in the Texas that the artist had come to understand.
p 112 Merritt Mauzey as printmaker
p121 Mauzey instructor at DMFA art school in 1942 (that's all it says about it)
rules
Apply To
Constituents
id
Equals
802
source file
artists_and_designers-0201.xml.nores