Special to the PVT The works of Robert Cole Caples will be on display at the Nye County Complex on Basin Avenue in a traveling art exhibit sponsored in part by PAC. Pictured above, an optical illusion is created in the piece "Untitled," of pastel and colored pencil on paper. It is part of the Nevada Museum of Art collection, and the bequest of Rosemary Riley Caples. Advertisement

The Pahrump Arts Council presents an art exhibition by Robert Cole Caples entitled "Rooted in Nevada," from April 21 to June 13 at the Nye County Courthouse complex, 1520 E. Basin Avenue and the community is invited to attend an opening reception for this significant exhibit, 1-3 p.m., April 25.

"Rooted in Nevada" highlights the lifelong work of the artist and his deep connection to the landscape and its original inhabitants. The exhibit is part of the Nevada Touring Initiative of the Nevada Arts Council and will be on display during normal business hours.

Featuring works from the Nevada Museum of Art permanent collection, in addition to newly acquired drawings, paintings, pastels, notes and studio materials, the exhibition reveals the interests, inspiration, and character of the man whose creative spirit found its home in Nevada from the time he arrived in 1924.

Robert Cole Caples was a mysterious man who prized personal privacy and lived a near-anonymous existence. He would have disliked commercial success and preferred the silence and solitude of the Nevada countryside over fame and attention.

Caples is best known for his legendary Native American charcoal drawings from the late 1920s and early 1930s, one of which was chosen to represent Nevada at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City.

In these drawings, he portrayed distinct individuals performing everyday tasks. The drawings were reproduced years later in two portfolios published by the University of Nevada Press and won him an appointment as an administrator with the Federal Arts Project in Nevada.

However, for Caples, true inspiration stemmed from the desert landscapes that surrounded him.

Caples once wrote "as a child, long before I undertook to spell or write anything, I communicated with myself and others through drawings and scribblings. I drew to make things come true, to make things real and tangible."

Caples briefly studied at the National Academy of Design, the Art Students League of New York, and the Santa Barbara Community School of Art.

As his involvement with the 1930s Federal Arts Project brought Caples into contact with a diverse range of painters and print-makers, he entered an new phase of work, characterized by constant experimentation with new materials and techniques.

Soon, his work in Nevada's rural towns and vanishing mining camps emanated the stylistic elements of Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood.

The Nevada Touring Initiative, a project of the Nevada Arts Council, is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces Initiative and through a partnership with the Nevada Museum of Art. The Nevada Touring Initiative is designed to increase access to cultural events and experiences at the local level, particularly in communities typically under served, while supporting the work of artists.

The Nevada Arts Council is a division of the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs.

For more information, call PAC, 751-6776.