| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
November Issue 2004
Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, Features Works by Genevieve Willcox Chandler and Exhibit on Birds
The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, opens two new exhibitions including, Preserving Memories: The Artistry of Genevieve Willcox Chandler and South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition. Both exhibits will be on view from Nov. 4 through Dec. 29, 2004.
Genevieve Willcox Chandler
Genevieve Willcox Chandler (1890-1980) was
a lady well known to the people of South Carolina and especially
to the people of this particular area of the state. She was known
not only for her career as an artist but also for her career as
an historian, a short-story writer, a folklorist, a teacher, and
a museum curator. More importantly, however, she was known for
her compassion, her gentility, her sensitivity, her strength of
character, and her ability to relate with people from all walks
of life; and these are the traits that shine through her artwork.
Chandler, born in Marion, SC, in 1890, pursued her education in
art at Flora McDonald College, the Art Students League in New
York; and in England. She lived in Murrell's Inlet, SC, where
she raised her five children, from 1910 until the day she died.
Chandler continued to paint and sell her artwork
until 1922, the year she married her husband; but it was not until
1962 that she again picked up her paintbrushes. It was the forty-year
span between her artistry years that Chandler was able to build
upon her impressive careers in teaching, story telling and museum
administration.
Perhaps the most significant legacy that Chandler left was her
work during the Great Depression. President Roosevelt's creation
of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) furnished her with
the task of interviewing former slaves and recording their stories.
Chandler's ability to reach people on a deeper level enabled her
to obtain some of the truest accounts of slavery as well as a
variety of amusing tales and adapted African folklore. Her research
for the WPA remained an inspiration for everything Chandler achieved,
including her published short stories, her 17 years of teaching
eighth grade, her establishment of South Carolina's first night
school for illiterate adults, her private literacy classes for
blacks held in her kitchen and her artwork.
After Chandler's retirement in 1962 as custodian for 24 years at Brookgreen Gardens, she returned to painting. She worked in several media, including pen and ink, charcoal, pastels, and watercolor. Chandler's art, which faithfully depicts the landscape and the life of the Waccamaw Region, has been exhibited in museums, art shows and universities.
Come and experience this charming exhibit of 38 pieces of Chandler's artwork at the Art Museum and see how, as one critic described, her art is "a reflection of her own personality: one of basic strength and vigor, but mellowed by sensitivity and grace."
Carl Blair
South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition is not your everyday exhibition that features works
of art depicting birds from the area. Instead, the exhibit derives
its title from the artists rather than from the actual pieces
of art. As curator Wim Roefs puts it: "The 'South Carolina'
in the title does not refer to birds living in South Carolina
but to birds or 'birds' originated by South Carolina artists."
The artwork displayed in this exhibition range from sculpture
to collage to painting, and they are not limited to realistic
depictions of actual birds. Several of the pieces are quite abstract
and leave it up to the viewer to discover their "bird"
whether it be a recognizable depiction of a bird or one that is
conceptual. For example, one may view Grainger McKoy's Wren
on Lock and easily identify and enjoy his perfectly rendered
wren; or one may look at Edward Rice's Birdhouse and wonder
whether or not there is a bird resting inside; and finally, one
may see Bill Jackson's and discover that the viewer himself is,
in fact, the "bird" of the painting as he stands with
a bird's eye view in front of Jackson's cityscape.
Roefs has organized this fascinating display
of artwork in such a manner that it appeals to a wide variety
of people and to a broad range of ages. Come and enjoy South Carolina
Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibtion at the Art Museum and find yourself
immersed in an eye-opening experience that challenges your own
ideals concerning the aesthetics of art. Is subject matter relevant
or irrelevant? Can a work of art be abstract and still convey
a particular theme? There will be 49 works of art displayed, and
each were produced by native South Carolina artists, including
H. Brown Thornton, Terrance McDow, Jason Amick and Tony Gregg,
among others.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings,
call the Museum at 843/238-2510 or at (www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org).
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.