Hagin - "Lace" Photorealistic watercolor painting of 2 vases and other items atop a green table covered with white lace cloth

Nancy Hagin • American: 1940-

Lace • Watercolor on Paper 30” x 42”

Nancy Hagin was born with an artistic superpower. She was deaf. Parts of her brain normally wired for processing sound were rewired to give her a heightened sense of vision. While most people only focus on what’s in front of them, Hagin saw enhanced color and details all around her. Can you imagine what her eyes saw on a warm summer day in the mid 1950s when she walked into the Museum of Modern Art? At the time she was a young deaf girl who liked to draw, so decided to make a bus trip from her sheltered suburban New Jersey home to teeming corner of 53rd and Fifth Ave. in Midtown Manhattan to visit MoMA. Most people are awed by the austere walls, graceful entrances and high art all around. To Nancy Hagin it was a visual sensory overload that changed her entire life.

She was captivated by the paintings of surrealist Joan Miró – an artist known for using vivid colors, along with objects and symbols to create dialogue with the viewer. It’s easy to see why a deaf child would be drawn to his style. Miró spoke to Hagin’s eyes.

Hagin did regain her hearing later in life, but would never lose the visual superpowers she gained from being deaf. She was born to be an artist. Perhaps even an abstract expressionist, a movement at its peak while she was getting degrees at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University in the early 1960s. But, she was more inspired by the high renaissance art she saw during trips to Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship. She couldn’t waste her gift of seeing everything around her in incredible detail. Photorealism became her chosen style. But, of course.

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Today, Hagin is known for her large photorealistic paintings and prints. She consciously stages objects, like teapots and vases, in front of rich, compelling backgrounds, and then paints the scene with a stunningly lifelike quality. Hagin puts the same attention to detail into her backgrounds as the subjects in front of them. It’s likely a representation of what her eyes see. Everything.

An art professor in New York for over 40 years, the once deaf young girl has spent her entire adult life sharing her artistic superpowers. She hears just fine today, but her visually heightened artistic style has remained unchanged. What she sees is what you get.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Gift of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York: Hassam, Speicher, Betts & Symons Funds 2015.10

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“Nancy Hagin was born deaf but regained her hearing later in life and taught art for 42 years.”

2.
“She uses a viewfinder, digital camera, and computer to create a grid before painting her large format photorealistic artwork.”

3.
“Who knew paints were seasonal? Hagin uses easy-to-carry watercolor during spring and summer months and acrylics during fall and winter studio sessions.”

4.
“She’s been called a ‘sumptuous realist that delights with lush colors, opulent patterns and reflected forms.’ Well said.”

Hagin Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1940

Born in Union, New Jersey. She was deaf as a child, but later regained her hearing.

1961

Received a scholarship to Yale-Norfolk Summer School of Music and Art and was classmates with prominent photorealist Chuck Close.

1962

Earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie-Mellon University.

1964

Earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University and was classmates with well-known sculptor Richard Serra.

1966

Received Fulbright Scholarship and studied art in Rome, Italy.

1972

Had first solo exhibit at the Alpha Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts.

1974

Taught art at the Fashion Institute of Technology through 2006. She also taught at the Cooper Union between 1982-1992 and had other teaching stints throughout her career.

1977

Received a Purchase Award from the Butler Institute of American Art.

1982

Received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She received another one in 1991.

1989

Received the Emil and Dines Carlsen Award from the National Academy of Design, which is given annually to the best still life painter.

1992

Elected a full Academician of the National Academy of Design.

2015

Resides in New York City during the fall and winter, where she paints with acrylics, and in Glenco Mills, New York, during the spring and summer to work in watercolor.