Monday, December 8, 2014

Phillp C. Curtis Original joins MCAM Collection


We are pleased to announce that an original Phillip C. Curtis piece, called “The Bandwagon” has been donated to the MCAM permanent collection by the Phillip C. Curtis Charitable Trust for the Encouragement of Art.

If you have come to the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in the past few months, you may have seen the piece in “The Ringmaster” – an exhibit featuring circus themed works by Phillip C. Curtis. Curtis is an Arizona icon and continues to inspire with his surrealist art.

Tiffany Fairall, associate curator at the MCAM, is happy that the piece has found a place in the MCAM family. “Curtis often represented himself as a dog in his work. There is a dog following the bandwagon in this print, so I feel like a small piece of him has found a home here.”

The donation is a wonderful addition to our collection and we thank the Phillip C. Curtis Trust for their generosity.

Phillip C. Curtis was dubbed the “Magritte of the Old West” for his surrealist approach to painting. His works often feature metaphoric imagery and Victorian figures in Desert landscapes. His works explore deep human emotion through the merging of reality and dreams.  He was a wonderful and important Arizona artist.


By Katie Selph