The Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art announces the opening of “A Good Day for Painting: The Art of Bernard Chaet” on August 24. With an artist’s reception on September 8, 8 to 9 pm, the show will run through October 9 at the Modlin Center for the Arts.

More than 40 paintings are featured in this miniretrospective of contemporary New England artist Bernard Chaet (American, born 1924). Included is a self-portrait from 1949, still life studies from the 1960s and expressionistic, plein-air paintings of the landscapes of the rocky coast of Cape Ann, Mass. – the artist’s primary theme during the past two decades. In her essay in the exhibition catalog, art historian and curator Isabelle Dervaux concludes, “Chaet has found the natural expression of the abstract ideas he pursues in his art, the balance of forms, colors, rhythms and textures that best materialize his sensations and emotions on the canvas.”

Born in Boston, Chaet studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Tufts University, taught painting from 1951 to 1990 at Yale University and in 1994 he was elected to be a National Academician by the National Academy of Design. His work is in the collections of numerous museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibition was curated by Richard Waller, executive director, university museums, in collaboration with the artist and David Findlay Jr Fine Art. An illustrated exhibition catalog published by the University of Richmond Museums is available. The exhibition will travel to the David Findlay Jr Fine Art Gallery, New York City, and be on view from November 1 to 23.

University of Richmond Museums comprises the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center and the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature. Admission to all museums is free and they are open to the public.

For information, 804-289-8276 or museums.richmond.edu.