Art Association exhibits the works of Virginia Nolan

The St. Augustine Art Association informed local Historic City News reporters that during the months of November and December, they will host an exhibition of the works of Virginia Nolan (1921-1996), a twentieth century artist who spent the last decade of her life in St. Augustine.

A native of Waterbury, Connecticut, Nolan attended Mary Washington College in Virginia where she was president of the Art Club and studied with the well-known muralist Emil Schnellock. She was part of the crew that painted murals in campus buildings that are still considered important art features of the school.

In the 1950s she became part of the modern art scene in New York. She served as vice president of the Art League of Long Island and exhibited her work at museums like the Whitney, the Heckscher, and the Smithsonian. She studied with Victor D’Amico at the Museum of Modern Art and at his famous “Art Barge” on Long Island (now considered an historic landmark).

Moving over the decades from realistic and traditional styles to abstract and experimental multi-media, she received public attention for a series of innovative yarn paintings that were exhibited in the window of Bonwit Teller department store on Fifth Avenue (now the site of Trump Tower) and featured in Family Circle magazine.

After moving here in 1985, she joined the St. Augustine Art Association, though ill health and a period of legal blindness prevented her from participating as fully as she had hoped to.

It is fitting that the first retrospective of her work in the twenty-first century takes place in the Marguerita Phillips Wing of the Art Association at 22 Marine Street. The exhibit is free and open to the public until the end of the year, from noon until 4:00 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays and from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Sundays.