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March Issue 2006
Spartanburg Co. Museum of Art in Spartanburg, SC, Features Works from Harvey Collection
The Spartanburg County
Museum of Art in Spartanburg, SC, in association with The Charleston
Renaissance Gallery is pleased to present nineteen pieces of fine
art from The Steven Harvey Southern Collection, on view in the
Museum's Hallway Gallery through Mar. 31, 2006.
Steven Cabot Barnes Harvey (1949-1993) was a scholar and collector
of American fine and decorative arts. Steven's sister, Linea Harvey
described her brother as having "a great passion for and
an omniscient knowledge of all things Southern. This innate connection
to Southern culture and style, and particularly to Southern art,
would, over the course of Steven's too few years, become a definitive
characteristic and call in a life rich in joy."
Harvey was a native
of Providence, RI, and began collecting at the early age of eight.
While in junior high school he discovered a local art dealer.
According to his sister, his first acquisition of art was a "portentous
purchase". "The image, depicting the back view of a
Civil War Soldier in a private moment of mourning, foretold the
Southern art collector Steven would become."
Harvey graduated from Wake Forest University where he began his
love affair with the South. He received a master's degree from
the University of Georgia and became friends with one of the founders
of the Athens Art Club. Harvey's sister wrote, "When Steven
was once asked why he collected art, he replied that he did not
have the talent to paint, but he did have the talent to collect."
His sister remembers
helping Harvey acquire Octoroon Girl by Archibald John
Motley, Jr. (1891-1981). "Steven assured me that I would
be better off investing in this piece than in any bank or the
stock market. He insisted I would agree once I had seen the canvas.
Octoroon Girl toured three exhibitions before it finally
came home to my New York City apartment. When I opened the box
and unwrapped the painting to look at it for the first time, I
wept. My brother Steven was endearing and enthusiastic and even
a bit crazy. But he was also right, for she was and is so much
more than beautiful."
The Spartanburg County Museum of Art is pleased to have the opportunity
to show this painting along with others by Wayman Adams (1883-1959),
Elliott Daingerfield (1859-1932), Edward Middleton Manigault (1887-1922),
Hattie Saussy (1890-1978) and William Posey Silva (1859-1948)
to name a few.
For further information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
864-582-7616 or at (www.spartanburgartmuseum.org).
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