Founded in 1961, the A. E. "Bean" Backus Gallery & Museum was the first visual arts center on Florida's Treasure Coast and has grown to become a thriving cultural resource for local artists and art enthusiasts.
Works from the Gallery's permanent Backus collection are available for study and reference, except on occasions when pieces are on loan to other institutions.
A selection of privately owned Backus paintings also are on display and available for purchase, with the gallery receiving a portion of each sale as a donation.
This rotating exhibit of Backus paintings ensures the public an ever-changing look at works from various periods of the artist's life.
Backus' early subjects were imitations of the old masters, original still lives, Indian River scenes and portraits. He also worked for a while as a commercial artist, painting movie posters for the Sunrise Theatre in downtown Fort Pierce.
Throughout his mature period, he became best known for his depictions of Florida's backwoods, winding rivers and sweeping seasides. At one point, the demand for such paintings was so great that Backus jokingly told people he painted "pink clouds and pine trees for a living."
Backus eventually took on more tropical subjects, first during a Naval tour of the South Pacific in World War II, and later after building a part-time home in Jamaica in then 1950s. He came to prominence as a national artist in the 1960s, when his work was hung in Lyndon B. Johnson's library in Texas and Senate offices in Washington. By the 1970s, orders for Backus paintings took several years to fill. He painted up until his death in 1990, and his last unfinished canvas hangs in this gallery. The remaining gallery spaces are devoted to changing exhibits of work by Florida artists, including annual juried exhibitions and work by local high school students. Supporters of the arts may become "Friends" of the Gallery, or purchase personalized "Celebration Tiles," permanently installed on the exterior walls in the Entry Courtyard.