10 PLACE rtist and academic Brent Funderburk has been fascinated with the work of Walter Inglis Anderson for nearly a half century, and is a longtime associate of the Meridian Museum of Art. That pattern continues this fall with an added feature – Funderburk’s role in a unique partnership between the art museum and The MAX. A North Carolina native, Funderburk calls the Gulf Coast artist “an American master, on par with his more recognized contemporaries such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock. His life work radiates a world-visionary union of mankind with nature.” Funderburk served on the Mississippi State University art faculty from 1982 to 2018 and still lives in Starkville. Accomplished in watercolor and other mediums, he has exhibited and lectured widely and is the recipient of a 2024 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award. Early in his career, in the late 1970s, Funderburk saw a public television broadcast about Anderson and was astounded. After joining the MSU faculty, he said, he “soon met the Anderson family in Ocean Springs, and produced a touring lecture, ‘A Halcyon Day! A Day in the Life of Walter Inglis Anderson,’ that traveled around the state and region.” His subsequent close attention to the artist’s career has included lectures, writings, and curating traveling exhibitions – and Anderson is an ongoing influence in Funderburk’s own creative efforts. Photo by Megan Bean, MSU Photo Services BRENT FUNDERBURK Award-winning Mississippi artist will show and tell visitors why he considers Walter Anderson ‘an American master’ A
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