COLUMBIA -- A new installation of 24 works by Charleston Renaissance artist Alfred Heber Hutty will be on display in the museum's BB&T Focus Gallery through July 20.

The installation includes one of only two pastel drawings known to exist by Hutty. "Found Heaven: The Lowcountry of Alfred Heber Hutty" is a selection of etchings, drypoints, paintings and drawings by Hutty (1878-1954).

Hutty came to Charleston in 1919 and immediately cabled his wife, "Come quickly. Have found heaven." Having worked as a stained glass designer in Kansas City and at Tiffany Glass Studios in New York, Hutty had begun a long association with the Woodstock, N.Y., art community and with Lowell Birge Harrison, who was also a mentor of fellow Charleston artist Alice R.H. Smith. Primarily an oil and watercolor painter, Hutty did not take up etching until he moved to Charleston but quickly demonstrated his complete mastery of the medium, winning awards all over the country.

Until his death in 1954, Hutty divided his time between Charleston and Woodstock and was a founding member of the Charleston Etchers Club. Together with Smith, Elizabeth O'Neill Verner and Anna Heyward Taylor, Hutty was a member of the "Charleston Renaissance," a group of artists who visually captured the rebirth of the city in the years following the Civil War and Reconstruction. Hutty's artistic vision combined with his technique uniquely captured the haunting beauty of Charleston -- its religious, residential and commercial buildings, surrounding plantations and scenes from daily life.

For more information, call 803-799-2810 or visit www.columbiamuseum.org.

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