The Art Life of W. Franklin Boggs

​The Beloit Art Center is pleased to announce special events occurring during the month of June in collaboration with Beloit College’s Wright Museum of Art. The work of one of Beloit’s most prolific artists, the late Franklin Boggs, will be offered for viewing at several venues.

The Boggs Show will open at the Wright Museum of Art on June 7 from 4-6 p.m. and at the Beloit Art Center from 5-8 on June 7 with receptions at both locations. On June 8, the art center is sponsoring a bus tour which will begin at the art center and take participants to the college, the Beloit Historical Society, Beloit Public Library, The Confluence and Boggs’ home studio in Beloit where several pieces of his work will be displayed. Tours are set for 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m.

Those wanting to take the bus tour should contact the Beloit Art Center for reservations at 608-313-9083 and pay the $10 fee. A bus tour on Sunday, June 9 may occur if people request enough reservations for that day.

Boggs was a Beloit College professor from 1945-1979. Throughout his career he was commissioned to produce large-scale public works pieces, but he also created smaller pieces for the local community. During WWII, he was among the combat artists sent overseas to draw and paint scenes from the war.

“We are going to recollect the career of Franklin Boggs at Beloit College and at the Beloit Art Center and attempt to further enhance our knowledge of him,” said Jerry Sveum, immediate past president of the BAC. “He had so many different talents and his work was so diverse,” Sveum said. In 1947, Boggs was named one of the best young American painters in Life magazine. Besides painting and sketching, he also photographed and later developed techniques in casting murals from concrete and more.


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