Avant-garde art movements of the early- to mid-20th century broke conventions and redefined what could be termed art. The earliest artist on display, Henri Matisse (b. 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambresis, France), was identified with the fauvists, or "rough beasts" as they were called by contemporary critics, who used the brilliance of color and invented shapes to demonstrate freedom from the constraints of realism. The phrase "painting with scissors" was coined to describe the later works of Matisse, such as the linocut "Skater in Motion I," which depicts a single white flower against a dark red background.

World-renowned Spanish artists Salvador Dali (b. 1904 in Figueras) and Joan Miro (b. 1893 in Montroig) were associated with surrealism. The works of Dali, such as "Butterfly" and "El Cid," show the hallucinatory realism and deep space of the dream world, while the works of Miro illustrate experimentation into the limits of abstraction associated with that movement, as seen in "Illustration from Book I."

Building upon the innovations of the great Spanish modernists such as Dali and Miro, Alvar Sunol Munoz-Ramos (b. 1935 in Montgat, Spain) achieved fame and notoriety as a painter while still in his teens. In later years he became world-famous for his intricately worked lithographs, which display an amazing wealth of color gradations, textures, light distribution, and draftsmanship. The two Alvar lithographs on display depict gently rounded figures quietly posed in domestic scenes--a typical theme of Alvar's.

Anatole Krasnyansky (b. 1930 in Kiev, Russia), who was trained as an architect, became famous for his impressionistic paintings of eastern European cityscapes. His innovative inclusion of paper textures into the creative process expanded the potential of watercolors into the expressive possibilities usually associated with oil painting. Krasnyansky's watercolor "Russia" and the color lithograph "Streets of Rome" demonstrate his expertise in both mediums.

Patricia Govezensky (b. 1961 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is also well-known for her watercolors. Her painting "Les Femmes" is typical of her bright, fluid depiction of female forms quietly posed in serene settings. Michel Delacroix (b. 1933 in Paris) is an acclaimed master of the naif tradition. His color serigraph "Patinage dans le Parc des Buttes Chaumont" is representative of his style. Calling himself a "painter of dreams and of the poetic past," Delacroix creates flat, two-dimensional scenes of a mythical Paris of by-gone years and innocent splendors born from memories of his childhood.

Jane Wooster Scott (b. 1939 in Pennsylvania) creates a similar world of an idealized past in works such as "Ice Cream Social" that depict community celebrations, holidays, and customs at the turn-of-the-century in small-town America. Her painting style is a bright, cheerful version of the flat, two-dimensional Americana folk art that is associated with Bucks County and the Pennsylvania Dutch communities near where she was raised.

The remaining group of paintings in the exhibit includes breath-taking examples of contemporary fantasy art. Jim Buckels (b. 1948 in Iowa) is a neo-surrealist of a peculiarly American breed--a creator of dream-like images, rendered in a meticulous modern airbrush technique. Buckels' "Calville Blanc" and "Saturnella" are representative of his architectural landscapes that combine the real and the surreal with flat, dream-like colors and very fine detail.

Like Buckels, Vincent Fleming's paintings depict the mysterious and other-worldly lighting of twilight or a storm. A retired engineer with McDonnell Aircraft, Fleming says that his foray into fantasy art began when horses began slipping off his painted carosels after his retirement. One of the oil paintings on display in Mullins depicts just such a whimsical scene, while the other shows a lighthouse on a cliff surrounded by swirling and surging waves. Gary Delamatre's works slip unabashedly into the world of fantasy. "The Mushrooms, the Mantis, and the Monarch" depict a mythical world where childhood fancies come alive in a mushroom forest.

"Flights of the Imagination" will be on display in Mullins Library lobby level through the end of October. For more information call 575-6702.