Kelly Fearing

"Owl, " pastel painting by Kelly Fearing, 1972

1972

Born in 1918 in Fordyce, Arkansas and raised in Louisiana, Fearing first studied art at Louisiana Tech University, and later earned a master’s degree at Columbia University in New York City. Fearing moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 1943 and joined a group of artists active between 1945 and 1955 known as the “Fort Worth Circle.” This group was responsible to a large extent for introducing modernist art and ideas to Texas. The artists experimented with European surrealism, modernism, and a new emphasis on the individual artist’s metaphysical interpretation of the world; concepts that would guide Fearing for the rest of his career as an artist. In 1947, after two years of teaching art at Texas Wesleyan University, Fearing accepted Loren Mozley’s offer to teach in the University of Texas art department in Austin, where he joined Mozley, Everett Spruce, William Lester, Ralph White, Seymour Fogel, Constance Forsyth and Charles Umlauf in defining mid-century Texas modernism. Fearing remained on the faculty for 40 years, during which time he co-wrote art education textbooks and inspired future generations of successful artists. As a pioneer in art education in America, Fearing founded The University of Texas Junior Art Project, the first visual arts outreach program of its kind in Texas. The program offered children of all ages and from all economic backgrounds free, university-based instruction and exposure to the arts. Fearing retired in 1987 as professor emeritus from The University of Texas Department of Art and Art History and continued to work as an artist until his death in 2011. Throughout his life, Fearing remained ever the restless explorer, experimenting with figuration, abstraction, color, and artistic processes in media ranging from graphite, charcoal, silver point, casein, gold leaf, frottage, montage and collage with found objects. He also explored a wide variety of printmaking processes singularly or in combination with other media. Since 1945, his artwork has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in major museums across Texas and is held in many private and public collections including: the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Dallas Museum of Art and The Grace Museum. Fearing received the 2009 Texas Biennial Tribute Award and the 2007 E. William Doty Award, the most prestigious recognition offered by the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin granted to individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary professional achievement.