Adele Lemm (1897-1977) was born in Milwaukee and moved to Memphis with her family when she was still young. She attended St. Agnes College for a year before marrying and starting her own family. But at age 39, she decided to seriously follow her interest in art, enrolling at the newly formed Memphis Academy of Arts (now Memphis College of Art), staying on as an instructor for 23 years. In the summer, Lemm and her family would head northeast to New England's art colonies. "Lemm was one of the great Memphis painters of the mid-20th century," says Julie Pierotti, curator at Dixon Gallery and Gardens. "Her abstractions, largely informed by her summers spent along the New England coast, are bold and compositionally complex, yet they remain approachable and inviting in their sun-drenched colors."