The Art Museum at West Virginia University recently received 78 small prints created by West Virginia artist Grace Martin Taylor. In addition to the actual prints, the museum received the word block created to make the prints.
Taylor was a native of Morgantown, West Virginia and graduated from the university in 1928. She earned a master’s degree in art at West Virginia University 21 years later in 1949. Taylor was chair of the art department and later president of the Mason College of Music and Fine Arts. The college is now part of the University of Charleston.
Taylor is considered one of the most innovative printmakers of the mid-twentieth century. Her works have been displayed around the world in institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, the National Academy of Design, and the British Museum.
Taylor died in 1995. The gift of prints and blocks to West Virginia University was made by Taylor’s daughter, Lucie Mellert.