Category : MulvaneExhibits
Location: Main Level Galleries
April 4–July 5, 2025
Guest curated by Connie Gibbons, Director Emeritus of the Mulvane Art Museum
This exhibition features a selection of drawings and paintings from the studio of Edward Navone (1937-2024). They provide a glimpse into the passions that drove his practice and lay the groundwork for further exploration of his art.
Navone studied art in California before moving to Kansas to work as an instructor at Washburn University. He retired in 2007 after 43 years of teaching engaging art classes. A prodigious artist, he created hundreds of large painted canvases and thousands of drawings and sketches using varied styles and techniques. His sketchbooks are filled with page after page of ideas, notations, studies, lists, and repeated imagery, both abstract and representational. For Navone, art was not a career—he cared little about promoting his artwork to others. When he was not in the classroom, he was in his studio, paintbrush, pen, or pencil in hand, exploring and testing his ideas. CANVAS AND PAPER celebrates the drive, hard work, and creativity that inspired Navone to spend countless hours developing his practice, one sketch, drawing, or painting at a time.
