UI Press | Edited by James R. Dabbert with J. Ronald Engel, Joan Gibb Engel, Wendy Greenhouse, and William Gerdts | The Indiana Dunes Revealed: The Art of Frank V. Dudley

The Indiana Dunes Revealed

The Art of Frank V. Dudley

A native Midwesterner’s timeless portrayals of a fragile sanctuary

The Indiana Dunes Revealed offers the first comprehensive examination of a widely collected, much loved, and ecologically significant artist. Described by art historian William Gerdts as "one of the finest painters working in the Midwest in the first decades of the twentieth century," Frank V. Dudley (1868-1957) was a native of Wisconsin who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before going on to establish a long exhibition record both there and across the country. He also dedicated over forty years of his professional life as a landscape painter to the promotion and preservation the Indiana Dunes. Today, thanks in part to Dudley's efforts, this unique geographical region enjoys state and federal protection and provides ecologists from around the world with a living laboratory unlike anything else.

The Indiana Dunes Revealed serves as the accompanying catalogue for the exhibition of Dudley's work showing from August 15 to November 30, 2006 at the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University. Featuring 150 color and 70 black-and-white images, it celebrates Dudley's unique artistic legacy, documents the exhibition, and demonstrates the painter's importance to environmentalists and naturalists, especially during the many years of national debate over the designation of parts of the dunes as a national park. In some areas, Dudley's painting may be the only record of a lost dunescape, and as the struggle between development and preservation continues, his enduring art reminds us of the need for a sustainable environment for the Great Lakes.

"Frank Dudley (1868-1957) spent 40 years promoting the preservation of the Indiana Dunes, using his skills as a landscape painter to showcase the natural beauty of Indiana's Lake Michigan shoreline. It was largely through his efforts that the unique value of the area was finally recognized, leading to the creation of Indiana Dunes State Park and the Indiana Dunes National Shoreline."--The Indianapolis Star

James R. Dabbert is senior lecturer in English at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and the author of the biographical entry on Dudley for the forthcoming A Dictionary of Illinois Artists. J. Ronald Engel is a professor of social ethics at Meadville Theological School of Lombard College, and the author of Sacred Sands: The Struggle for Community in the Indiana Dunes. Joan Gibb Engel is an activist and writer on Dunes ecology. Wendy Greenhouse is an independent art historian, and coauthor of The Union League Club of Chicago Art Collection. William H. Gerdts is professor emeritus of art history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.Gregg Hertzlieb is director/curator of the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University. Richard H. W. Brauer is Emeritus Director of the Brauer Museum of Art.

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