Peter M. Bowman

Jeffrey Martin, Portrait Artist
The title of a 2017 Memphis College of Art retrospective on the late Peter Bowman, “Beloved, Quirky, and Covered in Paint,” aptly describes the unforgettable artist who taught at MUS for 29 years. A 1961 graduate of Corinth High School, Bowman went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts degree from Memphis Art Academy and a master’s degree from Montana State University. Arriving at MUS in 1979, he was already an accomplished artist with work on display in galleries. As the school’s lone art instructor during much of his tenure, he taught courses at all levels and worked with countless students in advanced, independent study.
Although Bowman also taught at Rhodes College and Memphis College of Art during his career, most of his years were spent at MUS, where he was a community mainstay who fully participated in life outside the classroom. He was always willing to chaperone a dance, attend an alumni function, or work the sidelines at a football game. His legacy remains the artists he taught and the surreal realism pieces he leaves behind, landscapes and everyday objects infused with deep color and thick texture. He cared profoundly about MUS, and we are a better school because he was here.
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