St. Ambrose University is hosting a special six-month-long exhibit of paintings and drawings titled “The Art of the Improviser” by the late Rev. Edward Catich, renowned scholar, artist and teacher.

The art exhibit will run from March 20 - Sept. 17 in the newly remodeled art Gallery in the Galvin Fine Arts Center on the northwest corner of the St. Ambrose campus. Gallery hours will be 1-5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday until May 8, and 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday thereafter.

“The current exhibit features Catich as a dynamic improviser and highlights his ability to combine spontaneity and risk in the process of building a composition,” said Leslie Bell, art professor and curator of the exhibit. “Whether in watercolor, ink, scratchboard or pencil, figuration or abstraction, each piece displays an intelligent, gamelike arrangement of forms which mirror movements in art in America and Europe at the time of their creation. My intention is to feature Father Catich as an adventurous modernist."

Considered during his lifetime (1906-1979) to be one of the world’s finest calligraphers, Father Edward Catich was an international authority on stone incising, typography, stained glass fabrication and was known as the foremost authority on the Roman alphabet, its origin, nature and history. He was also the finest executor of that alphabet in reed, brush, stylus and stone.

For more information about the Catich Gallery exhibits, call 563/333-6444.

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