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February Issue 2006
Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, Offers Exhibits on Portraits and Photos of Works by Philip Simmons
Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, is presenting the exhibitions: Myrtle Beach Collects: Portraits and Keeper of the Gate: Designs in Wrought Iron by Philip Simmons, Master Blacksmith, on view through Feb. 26, 2006.
Dramatist Oscar Wilde
once said, "Every portrait that is painted with feeling is
a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter." But the 70-odd
portraits exhibited in Myrtle Beach Collects: Portraits,
come with fascinating stories not only about their subjects and
artists but often their owners as well.
The exhibit, a sequel to Myrtle Beach Collects, which featured
a variety of locally-owned artworks displayed earlier this year,
is the result of a yearlong search among Myrtle Beach area collectors
for contemporary and historical portraits. What emerged, according
to Karen Olson, the Museum's Special Projects Coordinator, was
a collection of works, each with "a wonderful story that
painted a picture of the community as well."
The collection's subjects range from the prominent - such as oral historian Genevieve Willcox Chandler and Dr. Edward Woodhouse, first director of Coastal Carolina University (then Coastal Carolina Junior College) - to the obscure. One such work is the simple drawing of a young slave descendant described only by her first name, Edy-ith; the portrait itself, a simple pencil drawing, was one of the few items salvaged intact by its owner from the wreckage of Hurricane Hugo.
Among the artists represented in the collection are some of the most distinguished portraitists in America, among them award-winning Chinese artist Ming Qin, whose portraits grace the walls of more than a dozen universities, including Harvard, Duke and Vanderbilt and William F. Draper, whose subjects included John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Paul Mellon and the Shah of Iran. Other well-known artists represented in the exhibit include Sigmund Abeles, Alex Powers - and an early 20th century painter named Pablo Picasso.
As works of art, the collection spans an equally wide range of media, from charcoal drawings to watercolor and oil paintings, as well as portraits made by engraving, lithograph and serigraph, a print method similar to silkscreening. Other works include contemporary photographs; at least one daguerreotype, in which an image is created directly on silver; a hand-colored photograph on porcelain; and works in paper collage and bronze.
In contrast to the art works previously loaned to the Museum for Myrtle Beach Collects, some of them carrying hefty price tags, these portraits often are more highly valued by their owners, said Olson.
"As people would bring these pieces out, some of them had a really hard time agreeing to let the pieces out of their homes," Olson recalled. "And in the end, some people decided not to exhibit the works at all, because they were just irreplaceable."
An excerpt from an exhibit panel reads: The year 1943 must have been a fine year for Talulah Lemmon. In that banner year, this exquisite painting was unveiled, and her second volume of poetry, On the Wing, soon followed with glowing reviews. Just one year earlier, at the age of 22, she had published First Flight, which was enthusiastically reviewed and quickly sold out. Her beloved aunt, Sadie Dusenberry Clark of Conway, SC, so proud of her accomplished niece, commissioned the young artist Charles Mason Crowson to paint the successful poetess. Ensign Henry Clemson MacInvaill, Jr., a native of Conway where Talulah Lemmon was also born, was soon to become her husband.
This talented couple
went on to establish several landmark businesses. In the 1940s
they operated the Pink House Gallery in downtown Charleston, where
they displayed the works of prominent Charleston artists, notably
Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, for whom one of the couple's daughters,
collector Alice McInvaill Estes, was named. Mrs. Estes fondly
recalls playing in the revered artist's study and bouncing on
her porch joggling board. The McInvaills later moved to the Myrtle
Beach area where they helped open the famed Pink House Restaurant
on Kings Highway, which evolved into other businesses. It was
recently demolished to make way for condominiums.
Philip Simmons
A biography of Charleston artist-blacksmith Philip Simmons is like a lesson in the history of the craft he has practiced for some three-quarters of a century, and of African-American artisans in modern America. He is still actively designing at the age of 93.
Keeper of the Gate:
Designs in Wrought Iron by Philip Simmons, Master Blacksmith, consists of 35 photographs
of the craftsman's work by photographer Claire Y. Greene.
Born in 1912 on Daniel Island, SC, Simmons learned his craft as
a young apprentice to a Charleston artisan and former slave named
Peter Simmons (no relation), initially spending most of his time
creating utilitarian items. By the late 1930s, however, mass-production
of wrought iron had mostly displaced traditional blacksmiths in
such work, and Simmons turned increasingly to more decorative
items for his livelihood.
As luck would have it, his home city had just launched a campaign of historic preservation that emphasized the use of traditional architectural materials and workmanship. It was not long before Simmons' distinctive style, incorporating images of the Lowcountry's flora and fauna as well as fanciful designs of his own, became a familiar sight at the homes and businesses of Charleston's historic district - more than 500 works in all.
So highly valued was
Simmons' work among Charlestonians that a nonprofit foundation
was established in 1991 to commission a series of gardens at the
city's St. John's Reformed Episcopal Church, to be framed and
adorned with multiple Simmons pieces.
Elsewhere in the state, Simmons has earned awards including The
Order of the Palmetto, the highest SC award given, in 1998; the
Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement
in the Arts; and was inducted into the SC Hall of Fame (1994)
and the SC Black Hall of Fame (1996).
Simmons was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts in 1982. His work has appeared in the National
Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution; the
Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM; the Richland
County Public Library, in Columbia, SC; and the Atlanta History
Center, in Atlanta, GA.
Although officially retired from blacksmithing, Simmons continues to mentor Charleston youth, providing tours of his workshop and emphasizing the value of a skilled trade to a young man.
The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum is a wholly nonprofit institution located across from Springmaid Pier on South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. Components of Museum programs are funded in part by support from the City of Myrtle Beach, the Horry County Council and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
For further information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
843/238-2510 or at (www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org).
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