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March Issue 2004
Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, Offers Touring Nature Conservancy Exhibit
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, is presenting the exhibition, Selections from In Response to Place: Photographs from The Nature Conservancy's Last Great Places. Organized by The Nature Conservancy and curated by famed New York Times art critic Andy Grundberg, In Response to Place is the cornerstone exhibition of the Gibbes Museum of Art's winter 2004 exhibition schedule highlighting nature and landscape. The exhibition is being presented in the Museum's Garden, Smith and Balcony Galleries and will continue through Apr. 24, 2004.
The "Last Great Places" are The Nature Conservancy's flagship conservation sites, which are known to include over 200 biologically rich landscapes throughout the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, Asia and the Pacific. In celebration of it 50th anniversary, the Conservancy asked a dozen distinguished contemporary photographers to respond to a site with which he or she felt a special affinity. The results of this landmark project was the exhibition In Response to Place.
Each photograph on view in In Response to Place was carefully selected by exhibition curator Andy Grundberg to reflect a variety of approaches to the medium of photography. The exhibition features artists who have achieved accolades for their portraiture such as Annie Liebowitz and William Wegman; artists famous for their landscape photographs such as Terry Evans and Richard Misrach; and artists best knowm for their work on the cutting edge of the art world such as Sally Mann and Lee Friedlander.
"By asking contemporary artists to visit and respond to what The Nature Conservancy calls the 'Last Great Places' I wanted to investigate new ways of thinking about how the camera could depict humans' relationships to the land, to beauty and to nature in general," states Grundberg.
The twelve artists chose sites ranging in character from the red rock plateaus of Utah and the forest of New York to the coral reefs of Indonesia. While some artists focused on plant and animal life, other focused on the people who live in and around these areas. Some artists made one trip to their selected site, while others chose to revisit the site over several seasons. Although the imagery included in In Response to Place is varied, the unified theme seen throughout the exhibition is that of the artists, regardless of method, produced images that express passionate feelings about the natural world.
Photographers William Christenberry and Lee Friedlander, for example, focus on landscape. At Alabama's Bibb County Glades and Cahaba River, Christenberry found himself photographing the first pure landscapes of his career. Friedlander's work along the San Pedro River in Arizona explores the diversity of plants growing in the vicinity of the river. Christenberry and Friendlander's photographic investigations unveil the hidden beauty of these biologically important places while demonstrating the importance of ecological preservation.
Artists Mary Ellen Mark and Fazal Sheikh took a different approach to The Nature Conservancy project by concentrating on portraiture within their selected sites. Mark's images are from two isolated coastal settlements on opposite ends of the United States, and Sheikh's portraits of the faces and hands of landless people living in and near a national park in Brazil are reminders of the human face of conservation. The use of this focus suggests that the beauty of nature and the reality of human presence are not necessarily in opposition, thereby demonstrating the Conservancy's collaborative and participatory approach to conservation.
Participating artists include: William Christenberry, Lynn Davis, Terry Evans, Lee Friedlander, Karen Halverson, Annie Leibovitz, Sally mann, Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Misrach, Hope Sandrow, Fazal Sheikh, and William Wegman.
Selections from In Response to Place: Photographs from The Nature Conservancy's Last Great Places is made possible by presenting sponsor, Merrill Lynch, and official sponsors, Cadillac, the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, MBNA America, Millstone Coffee and 3M.
The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The nature Conservancy counts at least 1 million members worldwide. The Conservancy and its members have protected more than 116 million acres on Earth, including more than 202,000 acres in South Carolina and 560,000 in North Carolina. For more information on The Nature Conservancy, visit (www.nature.org) or call their SC office at 803/254-9049 and in NC, 919/403-8558.
The Gibbes is also offering the exhibition, In Love with the Lowcountry: Photographs by Tom Blagden, Jr. and Michael Johnson, on view in the Charleston Renaissance Gallery through June 20, 2004.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 843/722-2706 or on the web at (www.gibbesmuseum.org).
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