August 10, 2015

Boyle Celebrates 80th Anniversary by Sponsoring Cloar Exhibit at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

 
 

Carroll Cloar, American, 1913-1993. My Father Was Big as a Tree, 1955. Caesin tempera on Masonite, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morrie A. Moss 55.24, Copyright Estate of Carroll Cloar

This year marks Boyle’s 80thth anniversary and to celebrate the milestone, Boyle is pleased to be the title sponsor of a major exhibition at The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art entitled The Crossroads of Memory:  Carroll Cloar and the American South.  The exhibit opens June 8 and runs through September 15.

 
"This significant exhibit of Cloar’s paintings, marking the centenary of the artist’s birth, was the perfect fit for Boyle, which is celebrating 80 years of business in Memphis.  Boyle’s real estate projects have transformed the local landscape and made a profound impact on the city’s footprint, so we are honored to partner with them,” said Cameron Kitchin, Director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
 
“We are proud to be able to celebrate our 80th anniversary in a way that will benefit the citizens of the Memphis area,” said Henry Morgan, Co-Chairman of Boyle Investment Company.  “The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is one of the leading art museums in the American South, and Carroll Cloar’s paintings have captured the hearts of Mid-Southerners for years.  We wanted to support this important exhibit, which will feature Cloar’s works from major public and private collections.”
 
“It’s not really surprising that Cloar is the best-known artist to ever have come out of the Mid-South,” said Dr. Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Art with the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and curator of the Cloar exhibit.  “His paintings—inspired by childhood memories, familiar Delta scenery, blues songs, and photographs of ancestors—tap into our collective unconscious.  Cloar paints the small town in each of us, as places we know either first-hand or through family tales, or as part of the sweeping story of the United States.  His works always have a hauntingly familiar quality.”
 
Boyle has a rich history dating back to the founding of the city of Memphis.  A Boyle family ancestor, John Overton, founded Memphis in 1819 in partnership with Andrew Jackson.  In the early 1900s, Edward Boyle developed stately Belvedere Boulevard, which is still one of Memphians’ favorite residential areas.   Boyle Investment Company was founded in 1933 by three of Edward Boyle’s sons — Snowden Boyle, Charles Boyle and Bayard Boyle, Sr.
 
“My father started with managing property for New York Life Insurance Co. and buying land and developing residential subdivisions and shopping centers,” said Bayard Boyle, Jr., Co-Chairman of Boyle.  “My father had a remarkable ability to identify and acquire properties in areas that would become major growth corridors.  We still stick to careful research and planning, whether it’s a residential subdivision, a shopping center, or an office building.”