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June Issue 2009
Burroughs-Chapin
Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, Features Works by Benny Andrews
The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, SC, will present the exhibit, Benny Andrews: The John Lewis Series, featuring collages and 19 pen and ink drawings by this renowned Southern artist, on view from June 4 through Oct. 4, 2009.
Born a child of sharecroppers
in rural Georgia, Benny Andrews (1930-2006) rose to become a nationally
recognized artist, activist and art advocate whose works have
explored and illuminated the African American experience. A painter,
writer, printmaker, sculptor, book illustrator and art educator,
Andrews gained particular recognition for his series of 18 collages
chronicling the life of civil rights activist and Congressman
John Lewis of Georgia.
Despite his humble origins, Andrews received numerous awards,
and his work is in more than 30 major art museums, including the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), the Museum of Modern Art (NY)
the Art Institute of Chicago and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
From 1982 to 1984 he served as Director of the Visual Arts Program
at the National Endowment for the Arts.
John Lewis, the inspiration
for the series that bears his name, was, like Andrews, the son
of sharecroppers. During the height of the Civil Rights movement,
he helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
known for organizing voter registration drives and nonviolent
protest events.
Lewis led the historic March 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus
Bridge in Selma, AL. The 600 orderly protesters were attacked
by Alabama state troopers in a brutal confrontation that became
known as "Bloody Sunday" and which helped bring about
passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries (some sustained in South Carolina during his work for civil rights in this state), Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. He went on to become the Director of the Voter Education Project and worked extensively on this project in South Carolina in the 1960s, registering significant numbers of African Americans in this state.
Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 and has served as US Representative for Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, which includes the entire city of Atlanta, for over 20 years.
The exhibition Benny Andrews: The John Lewis Series is owned by The Center for Civil and Human Rights Partnership which is slated to open in Atlanta in 2010. The works are made available to the Art Museum through Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta.
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. Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. 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 info
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call 843/238-2510
or visit (www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2009 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© 2009 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.