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Backstage

Oil on canvas
36 1/8 x 32 1/8 inches
Circa 1940

As published in:
Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection

As exhibited in:
Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection, 2015–2018, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia; McKissick Museum of Art at the University of South Carolina, Columbia; Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts at Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina

“Come quickly, have found Heaven” was what Alfred Hutty supposedly wired his wife in 1920 after first setting foot in Charleston, South Carolina. Enthralled from the beginning, he spent winters there until his death thirty-four years later.

Hutty emerged as a leader of the Charleston Renaissance, the economic and cultural movement that revitalized the historic city. In Backstage, he did not idealize the cityscape, emphasizing instead the shapes and textures of buildings in decay. An accomplished printmaker, Hutty often created parallel images; his etchings, small in scale and inexpensive, were purchased by tourists, which in turn helped to energize the Charleston Renaissance.

Other works by this artist