May 9, 2012 — The University of Virginia Art Museum will feature a selection of masterpieces in the special exhibit "American Impressionism and After: Highlights from the Collection of W. Heywood Fralin Sr. and Cynthia Kerr Fralin." The exhibition will run from May 12 through 22.

Heywood Fralin is a member of the University's Board of Visitors and former rector. He and his wife, Cythia Kerr Fralin, are longtime supporters of art in the state and avid art collectors.

The Fralins' collection includes landscapes, social scenes and figure studies as interpreted by major American artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists in the collection worked in styles ranging from Impressionism to the urban realism practiced by members of the Ashcan School and the Fourteenth Street School; yet they all engaged perennial themes reflecting both modern life and contemporary artistic currents.

While some of these artists, such as Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, spent the majority of their professional lives in Europe, most were based in America, where they focused on scenes of everyday life that were often grounded in the bustling cities where they lived and worked. Through their art, these artists were able to portray many of the social, economic and cultural changes that redefined America and, in turn, American art.

The U.Va. Art Museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays, from noon to 5 p.m. For information, visit the museum's website or call 434-924-3592.

— by Jane Ford