Jack Coughlin Art Exhibit

Beginning August 2, 2008 the Georgetown Public Library will host an exhibit of engravings titled “Literary Icons and Others: Etching by Jack Coughlin.”

Jack Coughlin is an artist of Irish-American heritage who is best known for his portraits of literary figures and musicians. As a figurative artist and member of the national Academy of design, Coughlin’s work is in many permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Coughlin taught printmaking at University of Massachusetts, Amherst from the founding of its art department until his retirement over 35 years later.

In 2005 Jack received the Gladys E. Cook prize at the 2005 annual exhibition at the national Academy, and in 2007, he was awarded the Dessie Greer prize for drawing at the 182^nd exhibition at the national Academy.Coughlin is perhaps best known for his portraits of literary figures and musicians that are regularly commissioned by New Republic magazine. However, in prints and drawings from the 1960s to the present, he has also pursued a vein of imagery that is much less naturalistic and that explores a range of sources, from the anatomical drawings of George Stubbs to the grotesque hybrids of European masters like Hieronymous Bosch and Pieter Bruegel.

The show continues through the month on the second floor landing. Images are engraving of Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf that are part of the show.