Michael J. Deas Exhibition Opening

Michael J. Deas is a master realist painter and one of the nation's premier illustrators. Working from his studio in New Orleans' historic Vieux Carré, he creates paintings and drawings with an elegant eye and a mastery of the oil medium unusual in a contemporary context. As an illustrator, Deas has painted twenty-one US postage stamps, including the Tennessee Williams, Katherine Anne Porter, Bette Davis, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and two of the best-selling postal stamps in U.S. history, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. His work has been featured on the cover of six editions of Time magazine and dozens of book covers. Easily one of the most widely seen images in the world, his painting for the Columbia Pictures logo was commissioned in 1993. The Society of Illustrators has honored the work of Michael J. Deas with five Gold Medals and two Silver Medals. The Ogden Museum's exhibition, Michael J. Deas, will feature paintings and drawings from throughout his career as an illustrator combined with never-before-seen works of a deeply personal and often highly allegorical nature, offering new insight into the work of a true master painter working in the South.