The Face of Music Revisited

Detail from Paul Hume, ca. 1957, encaustic on masonite, 14" x 10". Gift of Erwin Vollmer

Aline Fruhauf: The Face of Music II, a collection of woodcuts, lithographs, and encaustic paintings by the artist, will be on view through May 31 in the Fairchild Gallery on the fifth floor of Lauinger Library.

New York-born Aline Fruhauf (1907-78), who moved to Washington in 1944, began exploring caricature "not only as a respectable form of art, but also as a valuable way of documenting human beings."* This exhibit features fifteen caricatures of prominent Washington-area musical figures of the 1950s, as well as internationally known musical personalities and prominent persons, and other scenes. Fruhauf had solo shows at the Smithsonian Institution (1966) and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1977). The title of this exhibit is in tribute to her 1957 show The Face of Music at the Dupont Theatre Gallery of Art, at which the encaustic paintings of local musical figures premiered.

Aline Fruhauf: The Face of Music II, was made possible by generous donations from the artist's husband, Erwin Vollmer, and by collector Roderick S. Quiroz.

* From Making Faces, Fruhauf's posthumously published memoirs (ed. Erwin Vollmer; Cabin John, Maryland: Seven Locks Press, 1987).