Lamar Dodd (1909-1996)
FROM OUR CAMPUS, 1941
Oil on canvas, 19½ x 27½ inches
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia:
Extended loan from the University of Georgia Foundation,
Gift of Mary and Lamar Dodd
Lamar Dodd was born and reared in LaGrange, Georgia. He
joined the faculty of The University of Georgia in 1937. A
year later Dodd became the head of the Department of Art and
remained in that position for the next 35 years. As the Chair,
he led the Department in great expansion of facilities, staff,
and programs and was the impetus for the founding of the
Georgia Museum of Art in 1948. Without a doubt, Professor Dodd
contributed more to the cause of art at the University and at
the Georgia Museum of Art than any other individual.
Professor Dodd was a prolific painter who had more than one
hundred one-man shows, including twenty in New York City. His
works have been in major national and regional exhibitions
throughout the United States and Europe and are in numerous
public collections, including those of the High Museum of Art,
the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of
Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some of his best
known works are the NASA space series and his paintings of
heart surgery.
While few specifics are known about the background of From
Our Campus, it has special significance to the University
community because of its subject content. Dodd stated about
another painting of the University campus, On the Campus
(c. 1939, UGA Fact Book 1993), that it was in part
"simply to commemorate my warm pleasure in being back in
Georgia."