Telfair Museum of Art to Present Retrospective by Motorcycle Racer and Artist David DeLong Savannah, GA The Telfair Museum of Art has announced that it will present the first-ever retrospective of the 50-year career of the late David DeLong. The exhibition, entitled David DeLong: Passages, will to be on view at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences from February 8 to May 20, 2006. The show traces his development as an artist and examines his most persistent themes: motorcycle racing, the figure, and architecture. A racer, athlete and adventurer in addition to being an artist he was a Golden Gloves boxer in New York City, sailed on tanker ships as a member of the Merchant Marine, and in 1981 won a Western-Eastern Racing Association Formula 1 race at Bridgehampton, New York on a Yamaha TX 750 DeLong began his lengthy art career as a student at the respected Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. “DeLong’s life was divided between the introspective, solitary act of artistic creation and the action-filled, exciting, and often dangerous world of motorcycle racing,” said Dr. Diane Lesko, executive director of the Telfair, in announcing the exhibition. “He was passionate about both. In a number of key paintings and etchings he chose to depict racing events in which he participated, and in that way his art and life are seamlessly conjoined in a creative metaphor.” DeLong (1930-2001) lived in Savannah with his wife, artist Harriett DeLong, from 1994 until his death, and Mrs. DeLong is co-curator of the exhibition. The artist learned to ride motorcycles in 1939 as a means of transportation to and from art school. He later raced the machines at venues in Ontario, Canada, New York, West Virginia, Atlanta, and Savannah, and came to view motorcycles as requiring the same amount of control and discipline as life and art. The artist’s sometimes gruff manner belied a sensitive side, according to his widow, and a glass-half-empty outlook seemed pessimistic to some. But he considered himself an optimistic realist. “On April 1, 2001, when his engine seized and he high-sided in a practice session at Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, he broke a collar bone, five ribs, and punctured his lung,” Ms. DeLong recounts. “In the emergency room one of the doctors asked if he thought he would race again. David said, ‘Well this gives me pause to think,’ and then returned to racing two months later.” He was 71 at the time and died of cancer later that year. While living in Savannah DeLong also produced watercolors of the ocean at Tybee Island and etchings of the oak canopy and tombstones of Bonaventure Cemetery. Inquisitive and experimental, his style shifts from figurative to abstract and back again, and his subject matter moves from the mundane to the fantastic. David DeLong: Passages has been organized by the Telfair Museum of Art, and is accompanied by a color catalogue published by the museum. Incorporating the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Owens-Thomas House, and, on March 10, 2006, the Telfair’s new Jepson Center for the Arts, the Telfair Museum of Art is supported by its members, with partial support of the annual operating fund provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly and by Chatham County. The Telfair Academy of Arts and Science is located on Telfair Square at 121 Barnard Street, Savannah, GA. The new Jepson Center is also located on Telfair Square, just steps from the Academy building. The Telfair’s Owens-Thomas House is located at 124 Abercorn Street on Oglethorpe Square. Admission to current facilities is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, military personnel, and AAA members, $2 for students, $1 for children 6-12 and children under 6 are free. Members are always admitted free. Regular adult admission prices will increase to $9 with the opening of the Jepson Center. Two-venue tickets will be available for $14, three-venue tickets will be $18. Other ticket categories will be discounted accordingly. Telfair properties are open Sunday 1-5 p.m., Monday noon-5 p.m., and Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Telfair Academy is open free to Chatham County residents each Sunday. Museum buildings are closed some holidays.