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August Issue 2004
Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC, Features Works by Eudora Welty and Works from the 1930s
The Elizabeth Stone
Harper Gallery at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC, announces
the arrival of Passionate Observer: Eudora Welty among Artists
of the Thirties, a traveling exhibition developed by the Mississippi
Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, and circulated by International Arts
& Artists, Washington, DC. The exhibition will be on view
from Aug. 12 through Oct. 17, 2004.
This striking exhibition features over 100
works including photographs, paintings, drawings, and prints by
notable American artists of the 1930s. At the center are Eudora
Welty's dramatic photographs of Mississippi, Louisiana and New
York during the Great Depression. Welty's images from this time
period are placed alongside works by artists such as Edward Hopper,
Thomas Hart Benton; photographers Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White,
Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn; and Southern artists Walter Anderson,
William Hollingsworth, Marie Hull, and Karl Wolfe. Such placement
allows the viewer to compare Welty's artistic motivation with
visual interpretations of her contemporaries from this period.
Renowned author Welty was born in Jackson, MS, in 1909 and was
a life-long resident until her death in 2001. Her interest in
photography was further nourished through her acquaintance with
other Mississippi artists, such as Marie Hull, Karl Wolfe, William
Hollingsworth, and Jay Lotterhos. Both a compassionate observer
of the world and a passionate image maker, Welty used the camera
much like she used language - to document the economic instability
and prevailing personal hardship experienced by the Great Depression.
As the Great Depression deepened a need to look at and define
the country's character, artists nationwide focused on the activities
and patterns of everyday life in America. While some artists chose
to critique it, some to glorify it, and others simply to show
it, this collective focus was known as the American Scene Movement,
which virtually produced a self-portrait of the nation during
the trying times of the 1930s. Some of the artists were social
realists, like Edward Hopper, whose works illuminated urban societal
problems. At the same time, Regionalists, such as Thomas Hart
Benton, were intent on creating authentic American art by depicting
experiences of rural America.
While Welty and fellow artists in Jackson did participate in the
American Scene Movement, they did not indulge in the overt patriotism
that the style evoked in many of the nationally known artists
of this time period. Rather, Welty's photographs taken during
the Great Depression are evidence of her optimism about the human
spirit and pride in the South. It is through her words and pictures
that one shares in Welty's celebration of her home and her people.
With Welty's discerning artistic vision, she captures many aspects
of life during this period, confirming why she was known as the
'ultimate passionate observer of her time.' More than just a chronicle,
Welty's photographs, like her celebrated story writing, reveal
the courage and dignity of the American people during this pivotal
era.
In addition, the
exhibition features the work of the first woman photojournalist
who worked during this period, Margaret Bourke-White, as well
as five photographers who worked for The Farm Security Administration
(FSA) during the 1930s. The black-and-white photographs taken
by artists Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Ben
Shahn and Marion Post Wolcott feature farm life in Mississippi
during the Great Depression are a landmark in the history of documentary
photography. The FSA photographs, which portrayed the disheartened,
impoverished state of the nation, side by side with those of Eudora
Welty emphasize her compassionate understanding of humanity and
awareness of the resilient American spirit.
Passionate Observer: Eudora Welty among Artists of the Thirties originated at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, in the spring of 2002. The exhibition is traveling under the auspices of International Arts & Artists. The tour opened with a solo presentation of Eudora Welty's photographs at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, in Oct. 2003 through Feb. 2004. The exhibition also traveled in full to the R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, LA, and will later travel to the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA, from Sept. 2005 through Oct. 2005; and Davenport Museum of Art, IA, from May 2006 through July 2006.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the gallery at 800/476-7272, ext. 8523 or at (www.presby.edu).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.