Roger Medearis (March 6, 1920 – July 5, 2001) was an American Regionalist painter.Roger Medearis; American Artist
''Los Angeles Times'', July 9, 2001.

Career

He was a student of Thomas Hart Benton while at the Kansas City Art Institute in the late 1930s and took up the technique of

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

painting, a rediscovered medium popular with Regionalists. Benton introduced Medearis to the Associated American Artists Gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, from which he sold a portrait of his grandmother, ''Godly Susan'', now in the collection of the

Smithsonian Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Regionalist art fell out of fashion, replaced by

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

. Unable to sell his works, Medearis stopped painting. In 1966, Philip Desind, a

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

art dealer, discovered Medearis' work and encouraged him to return to painting. Medearis painted new works until his death in 2001. Medearis' paintings and lithographs can be found in the collections of the

Butler Institute of American Art The Butler Institute of American Art, located on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, was the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art. Established by local industrialist and philanthropist Joseph G. Butler, Jr., the museum h ...

, the

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the

. He also has a painting hanging next to one of Thomas Hart Benton at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. His later years were spent in San Marino with his wife and children.

References

1920 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters Modern painters Kansas City Art Institute alumni People from Fayette, Missouri People from San Marino, California 20th-century American male artists Painters from Missouri Painters from California {{US-painter-stub