ustxtxb_obs_1993_04_09_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

PORTFOLIO Loyal Garner Jr.: Transition from Man to Myth “Loyal Garner Jr, of Florien, Louisiana, died needlessly on December 27, of 1987 in a Tyler, Texas hospital of injuries suffered from severe beatings administered Christmas night in the Sabine County Jail in Hemphill, Texas,” writes Donald Van Horn in his introduction to a catalogue of Tyler artist James Robert Pace’s series on Loyal Garner. According to Van Horn, now a professor of art in Little Rock, Pace was taken up in the events surrounding the story. “His passion for this shameful history is powerfully revealed in this series of paintings, which focuses more on the symbolic qualities of Loyal Garner Jr.’s death than on specific facts. ” When he began the work, Pace had told Van Horn, then a colleague at the University of Texas in Tyler, that he hoped the approach “allows that the works will illuminate more clearly, more passionately, and more succinctly , the horrible occurrences.” James Robert Pace is a professor of art at the University of Texas at Tyler. His series on Loyal Garner Jr. has been shown in several galleries in Texas and in other states. 22 APRIL 9, 1993