
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990                   TAG: 9005010028
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YEATTS SHOW A FINE LESSON IN DISCIPLINE

A retrospective exhibition of the work of Roanoke artist and architect J.M. Yeatts opens May 2 at the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts.

The show contains more than 100 Jim Yeatts has a Renaissance spread of interests and activities. His gifts are numerous and given with an unparalleled generosity of spirit. They have become a rich legacy. Lyn Gilhooly works by Yeatts and spans the first 50 years of his career.

There will be a public reception for Yeatts at noon on Sunday.

Yeatts, a Roanoke native, was the first director of the Roanoke Art Center (now the Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts) and a teacher there for 17 years. He also taught at the University of Virginia, Hollins College, Randolph-Macon Women's College and Virginia Tech.

His work is in corporate and private collections in Virginia, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Washington, North and South Carolina and in Europe. As an architect, he specialized in sight-specific private dwellings.

The retrospective includes figurative work, landscapes, travel pieces and illuminations.

"To go through Yeatts' 50 years of work is in itself a fine lesson in discipline and art studies," said museum spokeswoman Ann Masters. "The drawings are marked by hour and date. There are many preliminary studies for a single major work of art. One subject could command a dozen or more sketches to compare atmosphere, light and/or composition."

Betty Tisinger, former head of art for Roanoke City Schools, is guest curator for the exhibit. Artist Lyn Gilhooly contributed a history for the show catalog, which is partially underwritten by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

"Jim Yeatts has a Renaissance spread of interests and activities," she wrote. "His gifts are numerous and given with an unparalleled generosity of spirit. They have become a rich legacy."

by CNB