The Lilly Library has received a donation of more than 450 paintings by playwright, screenwriter and director Clifford Odets.
This $1.2 million gift is from his son, Walt Whitman Odets, who said he chose the Lilly Library because of its “Midwestern spirit of openness” that welcomes people to visit its collections, according to a Lilly Library press release.
The new donation isn’t the only Odets collection in the Library. His written work is also featured, including his correspondences and drafts of his plays and screenplays.
Odets is known for his plays “Clash by Night,” “Golden Boy” and “The Big Knife.”
Odets’ paintings consist of watercolors and crayon on paper. The style of Odets’ work is “naïve and strong with intense color and imagination,” according to the release.
The addition of Odets’ artwork is part of the Library’s interest in writers who are also artists, according to the release.
Its collections also include art from writers like Sylvia Plath and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The first exhibition of Odets’ art was at New York’s J.B. Neumann Gallery in 1947, and he continued with his art until his death in 1963.
The Library’s new collection of Odets’ art “will allow researchers, students and aspiring artists to explore and understand the complex ways in which creativity develops over time and across multiple mediums,” according to the release.
Brooke McAfee
