The catalogue to the exhibition, Raoul Dufy: A Celebration of Beauty, exhibited at the Mississippi Museum of Art, ebruary 7 - July 5, 2009. Throughout his life, Dufy celebrated the joy of living -- what the French so aptly have called "joie de vivre." No matter what subjects he painted, or whether he worked in oil, watercolor, wood engraving, fabric, or ceramics, all of his works showed the same celebration of beauty, of color, and of life. When he died in 1953, art historians and art critics were unanimous in their recognition and praise for the imagination, inventiveness, and mastery of color and light that characterized all of his work. However, during the past sixty years, Dufy has been considered exclusively as a painter--while in reality, his paintings were just one part of a tremendous breadth and diversity of artistic creation. In addition to creating over several thousand oil and watercolor paintings, and almost 1000 drawings, Dufy illustrated about 50 literary works with wood engravings, lithographs, etchings, watercolors and drawings; he created about 5000 fabric designs, and his stage sets, murals and monumental decorations are among the most important of the time.In the realm of textiles, in his early 20th century designs, Dufy transformed fashion and fabric design, and formulated practically all modern textile design. Evolving between 1909 and 1930, during the years when he worked with the silk firm of Bianchini-Ferier as a fabric designer, his style radically influenced the popular arts and commercial design of the Western world.

Even today, his vision can still be seen in the use of color, design, texture, and imagery of a wide range of products such as book covers, perfumes, posters and stage décor, and textiles for furniture and clothing The catalogue focuses on the universal character of his work, the astonishing range of his creative energy, and his important place in the history of art. Included are three essays, and illustrations of 213 paintings, drawings watercolors, fabric designs, silk fabrics, and six dresses.