August Issue 2002
SC State Museum in Columbia, SC, Offers Exhibition from its Collection
The diversity of South Carolina art - and a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to preserve it - will be the focus of an exhibit that will be on view in the South Carolina State Museum's Lipscomb Art Gallery in Columbia, SC, through July 26, 2003.
Works from the museum's fine, folk and decorative
art collection are regularly used in art and cultural history
exhibits. However, Expanding the Scope: Art from the Permanent
Collection will be the first time since 1991 that visitors
have had a chance to see a full-scale exhibit based entirely on
the museum's own collection, says Paul Matheny, the museum's chief
curator of art.
"The whole premise of this exhibit is defining South Carolina
art," he says. "It is everything from 16th-century de
Bry engravings to stoneware moonshine jugs to William Halsey's
painting of chairs and even (self-taught artist) Ernest Lee's
funky chicken coop trailer."
Among the other works Matheny will exhibit are an elegant sideboard and cabinet made in Charleston in the early 1800s; traditional quilts, including an early 20th-century button quilt; paintings of scenes from "Revelations" by visionary artist William Thomas Thompson of Greenville, SC; and split-oak baskets by Rollins McCutchen of Lake City, SC. "South Carolina has a very diverse cultural history and that is reflected in its visual arts and handmade objects," Matheny says. There will be an emphasis on everyday objects, not just objects made by and for the elite.
A not-so-subtle plea for support for one of the museum's primary missions - preserving the material culture of SC - will be part of the exhibit, Matheny says. Some of the art will be pieces the museum would like to acquire or that it already owns that need conservation. An estimate of the cost and information about how to contribute will be part of the exhibit.
An example is a c.1840 view of Columbia from across the Congaree River by Eugene Dovilliers (1818-1887). Near the site of museum, it includes the covered Gervais Street bridge and a pile of bricks from the Guignard brickworks. "Not only is it a good painting, it's an important historical image," Matheny says. The painting will be donated but it needs to be cleaned and reattached to its stretcher.
"I want to show the general public the nuts and bolts of how a museum works and why these things are important, not just for today but for a hundred years down the road," Matheny says.
"Expanding the Scope: Art from the Permanent Collection" is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership and a lifetime of learning.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the museum at 803/898-4921 or on the web at (www.museum.state.sc.us).
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