Love

February 10, 2013

Born in 1886, Jean Paul Slusser graduated from the University of Michigan in 1909. After studying at various institutions including the University of Munich and the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston, Slusser became a professor of painting and drawing at University of Michigan and served as an art critic for both the Boston and New York Herald. Slusser acted as the director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art from 1946 to 1957 when he retired. As an artist he is primarily known for his impressionistic paintings, however, his earlier prints have a much more graphic quality and are stylistically similar to some prints made by German expressionists; a popular movement during his time as director at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Made in the 1970s, this print repeats a highly graphic and stylized image of the word ?love? to form an optical pattern, and suggests that perhaps Slusser changed his printing style along with the times.

Text by Devon Parrott

Return to archive