Photo courtesy of UA Museum of Art. Bruce McGrew's "Mythical Beginning," an oil-on-canvas painting, will be displayed as part of the UA Museum of Art's retrospective on the artist. The exhibit runs through March 24.

The UA Museum of Art unveils the first-ever Bruce McGrew retrospective Jan. 25 in honor of the 33-year professor emeritus of the university's School of Art.

McGrew is recognized for his rich landscapes, taking as his inspiration the washes and boundless mountain views of the Sonoran Desert. He and his wife, clay artist Joy Fox McGrew, were among the founding members of the artists' cooperative known as Rancho Linda Vista in Oracle, where he had his studio.

McGrew taught at the University of Arizona from 1966 to 1999, as well as its allied programs in Guadalajara, Mexico; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and Edinburgh, Scotland. He exhibited nationally but maintained his roots, showing his work regularly at the Davis Dominguez Gallery in Tucson.

The exhibit will showcase 57 works from across the nation, tracing McGrew's art in the 1960s until his untimely death one semester before retirement in 1999.

According to UA Museum of Art Chief Curator Peter Briggs, what sets the show apart is its inclusion of his less prominent work involving Mexican and classical mythology, his more figurative pieces and even portraiture.

"McGrew gained a reputation based on his landscapes and deservedly so," Briggs said, "but I think people will be surprised by the breadth of his work in terms of subject matter."

McGrew worked mostly in oil and watercolor, though he explored other media including lithography, drawing and monoprinting. At times, he even painted pieces of his watercolors beforehand and then collaged them onto larger works. He borrowed ideas from his travels abroad and to Mexico, sampling images as disparate as Mexican folk sculpture to the Italian Renaissance and Greek mythology.

The pieces churn with a certainty of form and an intensity of narrative, reminiscent of Jennifer Bartlett's "In the Garden" paintings or a Sunday morning dream. The lush mauves, ochers, roses and greens seem a direct window onto the desert itself.

In an interview with Robert Quinn, UA emeritus professor of art history, McGrew commented about his move to a new iconography with emphasis on the figure, moving away from his earlier landscape work.

"I know that people are baffled by the difference between the landscapes and the mythological paintings · " McGrew said. "It doesn't confuse me, and I think that in a large show - the big retrospective in the sky - that if they were all put up, the connection of vision would be there to see."

McGrew was approached with the idea of a comprehensive retrospective during his lifetime and was warm to the idea; the museum is now host to that collection.

McGrew left behind a legacy to his fellow professors, students and friends, and this legacy will hang for all to see starting Jan. 27 in the UA Museum of Art.

The free public opening reception takes place on Jan. 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the museum. The show will be on display until March 24. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.