William Vaughn Howard

University of Nevada Reno: Department of Art

The first art instructor at the University of Nevada in Reno was Katherine Lewers (1868–1945), who began teaching freehand drawing in 1905. For the most part, the program served the specialized needs of teaching, engineering, and home economics majors until 1939 when Lewers retired. Her successor was Helen Joslin, a traditional painter whose methods of instruction seemed to overlook the major trends in modern art outside Nevada.

William Vaughn Howard

It is not difficult to locate William Vaughn Howard (1921-1986) along the spectrum of art movements in the United States when he joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno art department in 1963. Abstract Expressionism still held sway over museums and galleries, both their collections and exhibits, and Howard held up Abstract Expressionism as the stylistic model in his classroom.

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