A local newspaper article dated September 24, 1975 included within this series provides background information about the Samuel N. Reese exhibit. The article is quoted below:
"One of Clarion State College's most unusual art exhibits is on display, not at Sanford Art Gallery but at Carlson Library, until mid-October. What makes the exhibit unusual is not so much its content but the fact that the block-prints and cartoons were made by a prisoner serving a life sentence plus for murder at the missouri Training Center for Men. The artist, who is also a poet, is serving two convictions and has been in prison since the age of 17, having escaped once. His name is Samuel N. Reese, now 43, a native of Missouri who learned block-print making from a civilian art teacher at the prison. He later became an art teacher to his fellow prisoners and his first student was the artist Robert Weaver. Reese, who has been making linoblock prints since 1969, previously worked in oils, gouache, crayons, pencil and ink, and "whatever else I could afford." All the work is done in his cell and he creates the blocks at night "when it is quietest." The prisoner turned artist solicits his own shows wherever he is "fortunate enough to find them" and arranged for his showing here through President James Gemmell. Glenn L. Sitzman, librarian is in charge of the show while it is at Clarion. Reese has 25 prints in his collection, including linoleum blocks, rubber tiles and wood cuts. They range in dimension from three by four to twelve by sixteen inches, and are black and white, hand tipped and signed, and varied in theme and technique. There are surrealistic fantasies, semi-abstracts prison scenes, figurative religious motifs, memories from his partially rural childhood, satires, dreams and simple allegories. Reese says he doubts if he will ever find a place beside Caravaggio or Maurice Utrillo, but figures he might make a Grandpa Moses. He has taken the Famous Artists Course and had some training on a scholarship prior to his incarceration. His work has been shown at Creighton University Mobile Gallery, Omaha, Neb.; The Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, Fla.; Ball State University Mobile Gallery, Muncie, Ind.; The Eye Opener Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio; The Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, Ga.; Winona State College, Winona, Minn.; Blue Ridge Mall Gallery, Kansas City, Mo.; The Harmon Galleries, St. Louis, MO.; Gallery 79, Paris, France, et al. The exhibit is open to the public in both the front and rear foyers of the Carlson Library building..."
