VCU news

Murry N. DePillars, Ph.D., who steered Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts for nearly 20 years, died at his home in Richmond on May 31 at the age of 69.

DePillars served as dean of the VCU School of the Arts from 1976 until 1995 following five years as assistant dean. DePillars cultivated a fertile period of development at the School of the Arts, which emerged as one of the largest arts schools in the country under his leadership.

“The School of the Arts grew in very significant ways during the many years Murry DePillars served as dean,” said Richard Toscan, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of the Arts.

DePillars was known as an enthusiastic supporter of a wide range of art forms at VCU and a booster for his students.

“Murry was a warm and gracious leader, and his focus was always on the students and how we best could serve them,” said Joseph Seipel, senior associate dean for academic affairs and director of graduate studies in the School of the Arts. “He was a strong and vocal advocate for the School of the Arts and led us through the majority of our formative years as a school during the 1970s and 1980s.

“I vividly remember seeing Murry with his trademark pipe and aromatic tobacco out in the halls or classrooms spending time with students and faculty,” Seipel said. “He was the consummate people person.”
 
Toscan noted that “beyond his administrative role, (DePillars) was a painter of considerable talent.” DePillars’ retirement from VCU allowed him more time to devote to his painting. Seipel said of DePillars’ work that “he loved color and pattern and his work has gained some serious attention over the years.”

DePillars’ paintings have been exhibited in such venues as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the National Civil Rights Museum. He was a central member of Chicago’s African-American Arts Movement in the 1960s and was a longstanding member of AfriCobra, an organization of black artists.

His painting, “From the Mississippi Delta, 1997,” is in the permanent collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. In 2002, the Hampton University Museum exhibited 42 DePillars’ pieces that spanned more than 40 years of his artistic career.

In an artist’s statement posted at http://www.murrydepillars.com, DePillars explained that early African-American quilt-makers’ aesthetics and their insistence on building – rather than sewing – quilts had a major influence on his work. 

DePillars earned an associate degree from Kennedy-King College, a bachelor’s degree in art education and a master’s degree in urban studies from Roosevelt College and a doctorate in art education from Penn State. He also served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

DePillars was awarded the title of professor emeritus upon his retirement from VCU and later received the Presidential Medallion, which honors extraordinary commitment in learning and commitment to the mission of VCU.