PAST EXHIBITIONS

This focused, monographic exhibition of key paintings by Dallas-based artist Barnaby Fitzgerald (b. 1953) from prominent local collections will honor the artist’s prolific career and celebrate his election to professor of art emeritus at SMU.

Over a career spanning five decades and three continents, Fitzgerald has built a reputation for his otherworldly landscapes and interior scenes, which contemplate themes from literature, mythology, and art history. Drawing on the tradition of Surrealism, he offers imaginative reinterpretations of classical allegories in his own unique, contemporary language. These compositions are populated by a captivating cast of characters, such as grisaille sculptural studies, skeletons, and individuals from his own life.

Fitzgerald is also known for his mastery of the egg tempera technique, a medium he was initially drawn to for its luminosity and its association with late medieval paintings. A beloved professor of art at SMU since 1984, Fitzgerald was bestowed with the title of professor emeritus of art upon his retirement in 2023. Fitzgerald is represented in Dallas by Valley House Gallery.

His work is held in multiple public collections across the US, including the Meadows Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Yale University Art Gallery, as well as many private collections around the world. Located in the museum’s first-floor galleries, this installation will feature a selection of the artist’s oil and egg tempera paintings, surveying his work over the last three decades.

Barnaby Fitzgerald: An Eye for Ballast is organized by the Meadows Museum with the support of the Office of the Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts.