Aug Issue 1999
Seeing Charleston Through the Eyes of Artists:
The Charleston Renaissance by Martha Severens
A Review
by Lese Corrigan
The
Charleston Renaissance is a documentary
book about the visual artists in Charleston from 1915-1940. It
is a must read. For those who know nothing of the growth of the
arts in Charleston in the early days of this century, it will
be an enlightening treat; for those who do, there are delightful
bits of information about the artists who participated in the
arts community, indeed, were the arts community for many decades.
The book is an easy read with good color reproductions. It is
definitely the reference source for visual arts information in
this time period. Included are analyses of the artworks albeit
they are very brief.
The author Martha R. Severens is curator at the Greenville County Museum of Art. She was curator of collections at the Gibbes Museum of Art for many years where she wrote extensively on Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. The publisher Robert M. Hicklin, Jr. has come to Charleston from Spartanburg, opening the new Charleston Renaissance Gallery on Church Street in the old neighborhood of Alice Smith, Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, Anna Heyward Taylor and Alfred Hutty. This new gallery expands on what Carolina Prints and Frames (now Carolina Fine Paintings & Prints) has been doing in dealing with Charleston Renaissance artists' work for 36 years.
The Charleston Renaissance is about the artists working in Charleston during the period 1915-1940. Known as the Charleston Renaissance, this was the beginning of a period of revival and renewal after decades of neglect spawned first by "the late great unpleasantness" (The War Between the States), its ensuing devastation, several fires and hurricanes as well as a lack of industrialism. Artists were a major part of this renewal through their documentation of the contemporary city before it began its "tarting up." Spring, not paint, had been the freshness Charleston had seen for many years. This rebirth was occurring in many southern and historical cities, but Charleston was the first in the nation to pass an ordinance for preservation and the policing of buildings and demolition in the historic district.
Severens' book includes local as well as visiting artists such as Childe Hassam, Walker Evans and Edward Hopper. She does not mention many other art forms even though the renaissance included writers and musicians who were attracted to Charleston or encouraged by friends who were artists to visit the charmed Holy City. There is a lovely biographical list in the back of the book of resident artists, a chronology of the renaissance as well as an extensive bibliography which is a great reference list.
Included is a history of the Charleston Etchers' Club, whose spirit lives on in Print Studio South, Inc. of Charleston. The Gibbes Museum of Art's Charleston Renaissance room is a good place to see these prints as is Carolina Fine Paintings & Prints. Charleston as it was is beautifully documented in these fine art prints.
This book provides a simple overview of the artistic, social, economic, historic as well as political issues of conservation, rehabilitation and development of a quaint, southern city. Severens states "Good publicity and enticing images made Charleston a mecca, especially for artists..." A 1936 article in the News and Courier called the city "one of painters best American dreamlands." Tourism being the supposed goal of the artists and city developers, strong opinions concerning tourism formed. W.W. Ball, editor for the newspaper, was against tourists, though Samuel Gaillard Stoney, a local historian, writer and architect, considered tourism a smart business for the city.
The author of The Charleston Renaissance indicates that the visual artists are responsible for the development of tourism. She examines the impact of artists on the local economy and their ability to produce images that drew visitors to Charleston. This is a compliment to artists who are more accustomed to being considered a bit outside the norm but also a damning result of a desire to produce artwork and survive. Documentation that female artists in early twentieth century were making a living from their artwork is refreshing to see. To bring to the forefront the way artists shaped tourism and tourism shaped the artists' work is important. Financial survival for artists depends on sales appeal, and in a small historic town, that means tourism. With tourists comes more appreciation of what Charleston was. The cash infusion that tourism brought saved the Lowcountry from some worse fate and provided much of the sustenance for preservation efforts.
The interesting observation that "their prints and paintings were positive portrayals of the city, glossing over some of the harsh realities of the present" begs reaction. Many artists search for beauty (not too many Americans comprehend the French "belle laide" - beautiful ugly). It doesn't have to be the portrayal of the harshness of reality.
Alice Ravenel Huger Smith's watercolors and wood-block prints depicting marshes and swamps leave out the gnats and mosquitoes as well as the oppressing humidity. Alfred Hutty's etchings and paintings expressing the majesty of the live oak and its flowing Spanish moss neglect to warn the viewer of the red bugs in the moss. Are they "glossing" over reality? Was this conscious as a ploy to draw in tourists? One could believe it was a very natural artistic decision. As for any issue of race relations being part of the "realities," many of the artists' favorite subjects were the blacks at work. Certainly their part in the daily life of Charleston was well documented in these artists' works.
A perusal of any of these artists works but especially Verner's and Hutty's will show the decay - reality- is present but does not put your nose in the mildew and rot of it. The charming appeal of decay is actually a manifestation of human reaction to acceptance of nature's - time's - ravages. The resulting ravages are a fact of life for humans as well as buildings. The attraction is also a nurturing of history or an exploration of what was to what is or the battle against nature, the nature of which we are all a part.
Often Severen's words sounds as though Elizabeth O'Neill Verner had been tasked with attracting tourists, and that she "intentionally" created work to do this. Others believe Verner's drive to appeal to tourists was more a result of personal economic survival and a love of Charleston as it was and its charm. Mellowed by Time, the title of one of Verner's books, aptly describes the Charleston of the first decades of this century.
The fact that tourists were enticed by the artist's visual imagery is a byproduct. As an academic exercise the hypothesis that Verner's, or others, work was fashioned to attract tourists is fascinating; as an exploration of artistic intent, it is debatable.
In a decade where regionalism is back "in vogue," it is interesting to read of the popularity of these local images in the works chosen to be exhibited during the 1939 World's Fair in New York. The delight of seeing William Halsey and Willard Hirsch in the epilogue is redoubled as Halsey particularly chose to remain in Charleston instead of allowing himself to embrace New York, which would have been much easier on him as an abstract artist. It is significant that Halsey and Hirsch are included since they spanned this century that held the Charleston Renaissance in its beginnings and the growth of the arts community in the last decades of the twentieth century.
This book ends with the line "Without the artists of the Charleston Renaissance who promulgated the area's picturesque beauty, Charleston would never have become what it is today, a place 'where there's a little bit of grace and charm left in the world.'" This line from Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind as spoken by Rhett Butler excludes the inhabitants of Charleston who were not visual artists but have given their energies during the decades to maintaining the history, charm and graceful hospitality of Charleston despite the ravages of man and nature in the form of war, fire, storms, modernization and tourism. These artists of the renaissance depicted Charleston because they were in love with their Holy City and her charms. The appreciation of the essence of Charleston glowing forth from the artwork is that which helps maintain her charms.
Now is the time that the impact of the business of art on this community's economy should be acknowledged. Perhaps this book and the presence of two galleries focusing on the renaissance and local artwork within a historic context will bring this consciousness to the forefront. Artists and non-artists alike should be appreciative that Severens leads one to recognize many important issues: That art is business; female artists have and can be successful; success includes a sense of community good and accomplishment; and that visual documentation of the ebb and flow of paint on the facade of this ever changing city is vital.
Lese Corrigan is involved in the arts on many levels including creating, teaching, and consulting. She lives in Charleston, SC.
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