Obituary: Hylarie McMahon, professor emerita, artist, 94
2024-10-15 • Liam Otten
Hylarie McMahon, c. 1980 (Photo: WashU)
Hylarie McMahon, a professor emerita of art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, died in hospice Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, following a short illness. She was 94.
Known for large, richly painted fabric hangings inspired by kites, parachutes, sails and migratory butterflies, McMahon exhibited widely throughout the Midwest. Her work was featured in one-person shows at Emden Gallery, Terry Moore Gallery and Timothy Burns Gallery, all in St. Louis; at Chicago’s One Illinois Center; and at the Maryland Hall for Creative Arts, among many others.
“Each piece begins with a notion about color and the application of pigment to cloth,” she wrote in a 1980 artist’s statement. “This is why I continue to think of the pieces as essentially paintings, though their construction refers to other models.
“They all look like pieces of rag at times,” she added, “but they work, just as canvas on a stretcher is a piece of rag that works.”
Born in Bournemouth, England, McMahon earned a diploma in fine arts in 1951 from University College London’s Slade School of Fine Arts and a master’s in 1957 from Cornell University. She taught at other institutions before joining WashU in 1960 as a graduate assistant in art history and archaeology in Arts & Sciences, and later, as a part-time painting instructor.
An untitled painting, produced after McMahon’s retirement to Tilghman Island on the Chesapeake Bay. (Photo courtesy of Augusta McMahon)
She taught for four years at Forest Park Community College but returned to WashU in 1972 as an assistant professor of painting. She served as acting dean of fine arts from 1976-77. She became a professor in 1985 and served as director of graduate studies from 1989-93. She was named emerita in 1995.
She served in executive roles for the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Community of Women Artists and the Women’s Art Center and in 1979 won a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Her later works, produced after her retirement to Tilghman Island on the Chesapeake Bay, included oil triptychs and quadriptychs that incorporated ideas from Bauhaus principles, Japanese design and Classical mathematics.
McMahon is survived by Donald McMahon, her husband of 64 years; two daughters, Emily McMahon and Augusta McMahon; and a grandson.