Maud Gatewood ’54 was one of the most significant 20th century painters to work in North Carolina.

Her years studying art at Woman’s College were highly influential on her career. “I thought it was a good art department. It was progressive and very open to new ideas,” she once said.

A native of Yanceyville, N.C., Gatewood’s paintings capture the essence of the Carolinas’ rural landscapes and their denizens across much of the century.

“The Hard Edge & The Soft Line: A Retrospective of Maud Gatewood,” a major exhibition at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM), provides a comprehensive narrative of Gatewood’s career focused on the evolution of her work and her notable impact as an artist and an educator.

According to BRAHM’s website: “Of particular interest to this exhibition are her landscape and figural studies, experimental use and application of paint, material assemblage, and pointed social commentary. Long undervalued in the larger canon of contemporary American painting, her work has been a favorite of regional art historians and collectors.”

The Gatewood exhibition in Blowing Rock runs through Jan. 5, 2025.

Visual: Maud Gatewood, “Three Sisters,” 1957-58, Oil on Linen, 44 x 36.in (111.8 x 91.4 cm). Gift of Karen Lang Johnston in memory of her husband, Hon. Eugene Johnston. BRAHM Permanent Collection, 2022.003.001.

By Christine Garton