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October Issue 2004
Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, Presents Works by Linda Fantuzzo and Manning Williams
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, announces the opening of the exhibition Framing a Vision: Landscapes by Linda Fantuzzo and Manning Williams on Oct. 10, 2004. Featuring artists of the Lowcountry region who have both trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and achieved acclaim on the national scene, this dynamic exhibition examines the relevance of landscape painting in contemporary culture, and more specifically the use of that genre to represent personal and public visions of the Lowcountry. Framing a Vision: Landscapes by Linda Fantuzzo and Manning Williams will be on view in the Main Gallery of the Gibbes Museum of Art through Jan. 2, 2005.
Linda
Fantuzzo
Linda Fantuzzo (American. b. 1950) and Manning
Williams (American. b. 1939), both Charleston artists boasting
successful, prolific careers, cross paths in their academic training
and preference for landscape as subject matter. Differing greatly
in their choice of media and stylistic approaches, Fantuzzo and
Williams come together with a shared high level of skill that
reflects parallels in their strong classical training and enduring
romance with landscape.
Framing a Vision: Landscapes by Linda Fantuzzo and Manning
Williams features approximately forty works that showcase
the artists' different approaches to rendering Lowcountry terrain
and atmosphere, as well as the sensations and stories contained
therein. This exhibition is the first show at the Gibbes co-curated
by the Museum's Executive Director Betsy Fleming and Chief Curator
Angela Mack.
"While both artists have been featured
in numerous solo exhibitions and general group shows, this exhibition
presents the first opportunity to examine the ties, as professional
colleagues and friends, between Fantuzzo and Williams," explains
Executive Director Betsy Fleming. "Having known each other
at the Pennsylvania Academy, painted en plein air together, and
encouraged as well as critiqued each other's work in Charleston
for the past thirty years, the artists' landscapes represent absolutely
unique perspectives but also capture universal experiences within
the Lowcountry landscape. The paintings will stir the soul and
mind of anyone who loves the land."
Landscape painting emerged as an important artistic and intellectual
endeavor in American art in the latter half of the eighteenth
century. Charleston artists were among the first in the country
to sketch or paint scenery using aesthetic concepts established
abroad. Having achieved parity in the nineteenth century with
other genre like religious or history painting, landscape painting
lost its primacy with the advent of photography and the Modernist
movement. For the better part of the twentieth century, landscape
painting was a subject matter that was considered outdated and
exhausted.
Yet, in the South the tradition remained strong and since the
1960s it has offered artists the opportunity to express deeply
personal points of view on environmental issues, historic preservation,
and humanity's relationship with the earth, as well as the mythologies
and traditions associated with landscape painting itself.
A New York native, Fantuzzo has resided in
Charleston for more than twenty years. She received her artistic
training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the College
of Charleston. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Fantuzzo
has participated in many one-person and group exhibitions including
a 1992 solo exhibition organized by the Gibbes, and more recently
a two-person exhibition at the University of Virginia. Corporate
commissions include Bank of South Carolina, Strozzi Vineyards
of Italy and Kiawah Resort Association.
Spatial relationships are at the core of Fantuzzo's work, whether
painting landscape or still life, the latter subject matter for
which she is most known. Drawn to Charleston because "it
was not a 'hub' in the art world," Fantuzzo's paintings reflect
her need for isolation to create. Natural light, lush vegetation
and aging architecture are the elements of the Lowcountry that
intrigue her the most. Working in oil, her paintings are studies
in the diffusion of light, pigment layering and perspective.
Manning Williams
Williams is a Charleston native and a graduate of the College of Charleston, and like Fantuzzo, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He has exhibited throughout the Southeast, received numerous awards, grants and prizes and has participated in many one-person exhibitions and group invitationals.
A true son of the South, Williams's paintings
tell stories. His landscapes are rooted in the history, traditions
and terrain of the Lowcountry and they suggest a profound level
of southern consciousness. Williams's large dry-textured, acrylic
canvases reflect his early stint as a house painter, to support
himself. His decisive handling of pigment and sparing compositions
reflect his preoccupation with developing a narrative within a
contemporary southern setting. His current, mostly abstract work
can be viewed as an outgrowth of this preoccupation. Moving from
representational depictions to abstracted form is a path many
artists have chosen and is most indicative of those who are at
ease with their personal vision.
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support
of an anonymous donor and Kiawah Development Partners.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 843/722-2706 or at (www.gibbesmuseum.org).
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