Refinement and Resolve: The Works of Dr. Arthur Bacon

April 5 - May 31, 2024

Temporary Exhibitions Gallery

Exhibition Opening: Thursday, April 4, 4 to 7 PM

Curator's Talk: Thursday, April 11, 12 -1 PM

Dr. Arthur “Art” Bacon was a scientist, educator, administrator, activist, and artist. In January of 1961, his senior year at Talladega College, he was attacked by members of the KKK in nearby Anniston, AL. This pivotal act would propel Bacon into the canon of civil rights history in Alabama. After graduating from Talladega College, he eschewed a career as an artist and followed his passion for marine biology and the natural sciences. He earned a master’s and Ph.D. at Howard University. In 1967, he became the first Black postdoctoral researcher at the University of Miami before returning to Talladega as a professor of Natural Science in 1969. Over his 40-year career at Talladega College, he became Chair of the department, Dean of the division, and ultimately Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs of the college before his retirement in 2009.

Exhibition curator and Talladega College archivist Perry H. Trice explains that, within the Talladega College campus community, Dr. Bacon was known as “a science professor who occasionally did art.” After retirement, unencumbered by his day job, his role in the Arts and the Arts community expanded. In an orbit where he was known as an artist, not a scientist, Bacon could engage the local and regional art community through local art shows, public painting demonstrations, and frequent entries of his finished work in juried exhibitions. He was awarded the Alabama State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award in 2017. A bronze bust of Dr. Bacon was unveiled in the college museum’s Civil Rights Garden last year on November 2, 2023, two days after he passed away. 

This exhibition of his work spans five decades and reveals Bacon’s artistic evolution from minimalist figure drawings to large-scale paintings to painting as performance. Comments Trice, “Bacon not only possessed the natural talent to be a great artist from an early age but how his artistic style was influenced and evolved throughout his life, and that fundamentally, Bacon’s natural gift was his ability to connect to people through his creative endeavors.”

On exhibit through May 31, 2024.