July 26 - August 30, 2002

Jack Grue was an internationally known master of miniatures, watercolors, and oils. The exhibition at Christian Brothers University Gallery is drawn from the university's collections and works on loan from the collections of Buck Boshwit and Dave and Joan Derman. This is the first major solo exhibit of Grue's work in 35 years, and the first exhibition of CBU's collection of drawings from his personal portfolio.

Grue was born in Kiev, Russia. He studied in the Ukraine and served with the anti-Bolshevik White Army. Grue left Russia at the end of the Russian civil war and settled in Vienna. He continued his studies there at the Academy of Fine Arts and reached success as scenic director for theatrical producer Max Reinhardt. Grue left Europe in 1939, when the Nazis took power in Austria, and resettled in Memphis.

His paintings were widely exhibited during his lifetime in both the United States and abroad. He was one of only three Americans to be accepted into the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers in London; he also belonged to miniaturist societies in Washington, D.C., and in Pennsylvania.

Grue's artwork ranged in medium from oil to tempera, from woodcuts to watercolors. His subjects ranged from Biblical illustrations to Mississippi River scenes, from Rock Mountain landscapes to French Quarter street scenes. In contrast to the intimacy of his miniatures, Grue also worked as a muralist and, locally, produced a number of large paintings for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He also designed stained glass windows for the former site of Baron Hirsch Synagogue in the Vollintine-Evergreen area.

Reviewing a posthumous retrospective at the Brooks Memorial Art Galery in 1956, newspaper critic Guy Northrup, Jr. described Grue's miniatures as a "whispering caress of the eye". Christian Brothers University is honored to be home to so many of Jack Grue's works, and is pleased to offer his talents for a belated rediscovery.