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September Issue 2003
South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, SC, Features Works by Self-Taught Artists
The amazing work of artists who have never had a lesson in their lives will enchant and intrigue museum guests beginning Sept. 5. That's the day the SC State Museum in Columbia, SC, opens its new exhibit Traditions and New Inventions: South Carolina Self-Taught Artists in the Lipscomb Gallery. The exhibit will continue through Jan. 5, 2004.
The show features such works as paintings of African kings and queens by Richard Burnside of Pendleton, the drawings of popular culture icons by Gene Merritt, wood carvings of Orangeburg's L.C. Carson, the imaginative and strange paintings of Helen Dupree Moseley from Spartanburg, and the whimsical metal whirligigs of Joe Burden from Anderson. One special artifact, a scrap quilt of the American flag by Janie Grant, was inspired by the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
The exhibit will show guests "a different type of artwork made by artists that have little or no influence from the academic art world," says Art Curator Paul Matheny. "It's hard to gain access to these artists' work because it's in their own homes and private collections.
"They create this work to fulfill an inner need, not simply for money or to be shown in a gallery. Many of the artists have no interest in selling their work or pursuing gallery representation. This art is often made for their own pleasure and enjoyment.
A good example is William Thomas Thompson of Greenville, says Matheny. "Look around his studio. There are stacks of paintings everywhere. He's obsessed and has a personal need to create this work. All of these people trust their imaginations and are driven to create."
Thompson is demonstrating this drive by creating a 12'x36' mural illustrating events from the Bible. Many of his paintings in the past have been visions from the book of Revelation.
Asked whether there is anything else unusual or unique about the exhibit, Matheny enthuses, "just about everything in the whole show is unusual and unique. It includes boxes made of matchsticks, ships and radios made of toothpicks, paintings on plywood and tin. These artists have been hidden away in small communities in South Carolina, and now their work will be revealed in this exhibit for everyone to see and enjoy."
In addition to the exhibit itself, some self-taught art, as well as traditional folk art, will be featured in the museum's upcoming Heritage Harvest Festival the first two weekends of Oct.
For more information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, contact Paul Matheny
at 803898-4941 or on the web at (www.museum.state.sc.us).
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