Glenn Walker: In the Room and Beyond

Retrospective Exhibition, Courtesy of Buzz Cusack

The Peale is proud to present a rare retrospective of Baltimore artist Glenn Walker, whose bold and unflinching vision left an indelible mark on the city’s art scene. From intimate portraits to charged social commentary, Walker’s work captures the beauty, humor, and complexity of everyday life.

About the Artist

Glenn F. Walker (1927-1988) was a Baltimore painter trained at the then-Maryland Institute of Arts and a “best kept secret” among area art aficionados.  Walker, who died in 1988, continues to be known for working in a breathtaking variety of media and styles including oils, pastels, watercolors, drawings, and woodcuts. He won prizes for his art from the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Peale Museum, and elsewhere. Walker is remembered in part as the subject of controversy: Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. saw a Walker painting, “In a Room”, during a 1955 Peale exhibition, and declaring it obscene and “morally objectionable,” ordered it removed. The painting showed a nude man smoking a cigarette and a woman lying on a bed. The museum’s director, Wilbur H. Hunter Jr., put the painting on display in his office, and other painters protested the mayor’s order by removing their works from the exhibition. 

A year later, the Baltimore Sun’s art critic, Kenneth Sawyer, called Walker “a draftsman of sensitive imagination, a technician with few peers in Baltimore.” Walker remained at the center of the city’s art scene for many years, continuing to paint and teach throughout his four-decade career. 

This exhibition is made possible thanks to the generosity of Buzz Cusack, who has preserved and championed Walker’s artistic legacy. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore works spanning Walker’s career, including the controversial In the Room, the 1955 painting at the center of one of Baltimore’s most infamous art censorship battles.

Join us as we celebrate Walker’s fearless creativity and rediscover an artist whose work still challenges, delights, and inspires nearly 70 years later.

Artist profile compliments of Manor Mill, Monkton, MD