Lamar Dodd

Lamar Dodd (September 22, 1909 - September 26, 1996) was a U.S. painter whose work reflected a love of the American South.

Early life and education

Born in Fairburn, Georgia, to Rev. Francis Jefferson Dodd and Etta Cleveland (Ed Dodd, creator of the Mark Trail comic strip, was his first cousin), and reared in LaGrange, Georgia, Dodd trained in the South, including a short stay at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

Career

He taught art in Alabama before traveling to New York City to study under advocates of the Ashcan School of painting as well as to gain a nativist perspective from the paintings of artists such as Thomas Hart Benton. He returned to Birmingham, Alabama determined to champion local art. Over a long and productive career his styles encompassed naturalism and expressionism and extended to abstract art.

Dodd was also a university teacher and administrator. Appointed as an artist in residence at University of Georgia in Athens in 1937, he became the head of the art department several years later. Dodd consolidated art instruction into a unified department and initiated a master's degree program. The Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia is named in his memory. Dodd became a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1954, and was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.