Bror Utter was at the center of Fort Worth art for much of the 20th century.

Born in 1913, the grandson of a Finnish painter, Utter attended the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts, where he met other local artists to form the nucleus of what would be known as the Fort Worth Circle. The burgeoning artists’ colony encouraged a more advanced aesthetic, embracing abstract art and modernism.

Now 18 paintings and prints by Utter are part of TCU’s permanent collection, thanks to a generous donation by Faye Rathgeber Willis. The collection spans Utter’s career from the ’40s to the ’80s and shows his interest in a variety of subjects and mastery of several media. Willis’ gift also includes a work by Lia Cuilty, another Fort Worth Circle artist.

Initially inclined to paint landscapes or somewhat theatrical figures, Utter began to transition in the 1940s to a new form of abstraction that brought much acclaim at the Fort Worth Local Artists Show. Utter used colors and fantastic shapes in the figural abstractions that would become distinctly his own.

Inspired by a trip to Rome and Venice, Utter produced a series of watercolors of the Fort Worth architecture in 1956-1957. He inspired the city in other ways, including his long-time instruction at both the Fort Worth Art Association and the Woman’s Club of Fort Worth.

Devon Wattier Nowlin ’11 MFA, gallery manager at The Art Galleries at TCU, said she plans to stage an exhibition showcasing the work of Utter and similar works. She said that some of the donated works are titled, but others may require more research to discover more about their names and origins.

“That’s part of the research our interns will be doing leading up to the exhibition,” Nowlin said. “It’s a good opportunity for the students to participate.”

One question Nowlin hopes to answer is whether Bror’s painting titled “For Helen” was dedicated to her former teacher and mentor Helen Billingsley Silvestri ’53, an artist and art educator in Fort Worth schools for more than 35 years.

“I was looking at the way he made the rocks in that painting, and it was just like the way she used to teach us to do it,” adds Nowlin. “I think it really may be for her.”