André 3000’s words from 1995 continue to ring true almost two decades later, in many contexts. Although art history is a little different from hip hop, the same undervaluing of southern artists has been true there. A new exhibition trying to make the same case, “Southern/Modern,” opens at the Georgia Museum of Art on June 17 as the first of four stops on its tour.
Art history constantly changes and evolves as we learn more about our past and seek new and more inclusive perspectives. “Southern/Modern” tells an important story that has been largely absent from American art history. The exhibition was organized by the Mint Museum, in Charlotte, North Carolina, in collaboration with the Georgia Museum of Art.
In 1949, a curator at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote, “little of artistic merit was made south of Baltimore.” Despite the growth in scholarship in the intervening years, the emergence of museums and collections in the South focused on its art, and numerous exhibitions and publications about individual artists from the region, there have been relatively few efforts to address southern art in a comprehensive fashion until now.
“Southern/Modern” takes a broad view of the South. It considers artists working in the states below the Mason-Dixon line and as far west as those bordering the Mississippi River. Featuring works created between 1913 and 1955, the exhibition is structured around themes including current events and social issues, urbanization, religion, the environment, artists’ colonies and how these creators interpreted the latest trends in modern art, arranged gallery by gallery. It also examines the central role played by women artists and artists of color to art made in the region. It provides a fuller, richer and more accurate overview of the South’s artistic activity than has been presented previously.
Curated by the Mint’s senior curator of American art Jonathan Stuhlman and independent scholar Martha Severens, the exhibition includes more than 100 paintings and works on paper by artists from the southern United States, as well as some artists living outside of the region who made significant bodies of work during visits to the South.
Artists in the exhibition include Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Dusti Bonge, Carroll Cloar, Marie Hull, Jacob Lawrence, Blanche Lazzell, John McCrady, Will Henry Stevens and Hale Woodruff, as well as “many others both well-known and awaiting further discovery,” Stuhlman says.
“‘Southern/Modern’ began as an idea over a decade ago as I came to know our collection and other collections in the region and gained a deep appreciation for the art that I was discovering. It has truly been a pleasure and an enriching journey of discovery to bring this exhibition to life and I am both excited to share it with the public and deeply appreciative of all the private collectors and museums who generously lent their works to us,” Stuhlman says. “It was also a pleasure to work with the scholars who lent their time, talent and insight to the informative and beautifully designed publication accompanying the show.”
Come see “Southern/Modern” at the Georgia Museum of Art June 17 – December 10, 2023, or later on its tour, as it travels to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Mint, where it will wrap up.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the University of North Carolina Press, containing more than 175 rich illustrations and a dozen essays by contributing curators and leading art scholars. Shawnya Harris and Jeffrey Richmond-Moll at the Georgia Museum of Art serve as the in-house curators at the first venue and both contributed to the catalogue, which is available for purchase in the Museum Shop.
Lead support for “Southern/Modern” is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation for American Art, with additional support from the Terra Foundation for American Art; the Wyeth Foundation for American Art; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Betsy and Alfred Brand Fund at The Mint Museum.
Related events include:
- 90 Carlton: Summer, a quarterly reception celebrating exhibitions at the museum hosted by the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, on June 16 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with light refreshments, door prizes and more; $15 Not Yet Friends; $10 Friends of the Museum and Friend + Annual Fund Members; free for Friend + Annual Fund Members (Reciprocal level and above); register at https://bit.ly/90c-jun-23.
- A Toddler Tuesday on August 22 at 10 a.m. (for ages 18 months to 3 years; free but register by emailing gmoa-tours@uga.edu)
- An Artful Conversation on Lamar Dodd’s painting “Bargain Basement,” led by curator of education Callan Steinmann on August 23 at 2 p.m.
- A curator talk by Harris on September 13 at 2 p.m.
- Student Night, geared to UGA students, on September 21 from 6 to 8 p.m.
- And a Family Day on September 30 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Family Day is sponsored by Lucy and Buddy Allen and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art. Student Night is generously sponsored by the UGA Parents Leadership Council.
Authored by:
Hillary Brown
