at Museum of Fine Arts St. Pete
Apr. 13, 2019 – Jun. 2, 2019
Theo Wujcik (American, 1936–2014), Gates of Hell (detail), 1987, acrylic and collage on canvas, Gift of Susan Johnson in honor of Katherine Pill as a part of the Cantos exhibition.
The Museum of Fine Arts is currently offering an exhibit of the works of one of Tampa Bay’s best-known artists, Theo Wujcik (1936-2014). The exhibit will continue through June 2. Wujcik spent a decade creating a series drawn from the dark and profound literary classic, Dante’s Inferno. Now, those extraordinary paintings are the theme for Theo Wujcik: Cantos, a special exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts at 255 Beach Drive NE in St. Petersburg.
This exhibition celebrates the work of Theo Wujcik with a focus on the literary references in his work. A fixture of the Ybor City art scene, Wujcik was an accomplished master printer and painter whose expansive practice engaged deeply with art historical tradition and the global contemporary art world.
This exhibition will premiere the Museum’s newest accession of Wojcik’s work, the diptych Gates of Hell (1987), which complements Canto II (1997), also in the collection. Both paintings are based on Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s (1265–1321) Inferno, the first part of the epic poem Divine Comedy. Also featured will be selections from the artist’s personal notebooks, collage studies and select loans. The exhibit is made possible by Ann and William Edwards and the Gobioff Foundation.