More Southern/Modern
TJC Gallery, Spartanburg SC
November 9, 2024 – February 8, 2025
As an extension of the successful traveling exhibition Southern/Modern, which received rave reviews in The New York Times and is currently on view at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, The Johnson Collection is delighted to present twenty-three additional works of art that showcase the diversity and impact of modernism in the American South. Modernism in art refers to a movement prominent around the first half of the twentieth century in which traditional assumptions governing technique and subject matter were called into question, and color, line, and form began to be elevated above and beyond representational accuracy.
Modernism has long been associated with the avant-garde capitals of Europe and New York, relegating Southern art to stereotypes of provincialism and traditionalism. By contrast, consider Romare Bearden’s revolutionary exploration of collage techniques or the experiments with surrealism conducted by Gregory Ivy and Frank London. And Spartanburg’s hometown artist, Margaret Law, pushed boundaries as a woman creator inspired by the gritty Ashcan style. These examples—and the others on display in this exhibition—help reveal that the American South was not only deeply influenced by modernism, but also vitally and distinctively helped to shape it.
This exhibition is guest-curated by independent art historian and author Martha Severens. The cocurator of Southern/Modern, she has been a curator of American art since 1976, first at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, followed by a stint at the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art. Her last position, for seventeen years, was with the Greenville County (South Carolina) Museum of Art. Since her retirement in 2010, she has been a consultant with various art institutions including The Johnson Collection.
Featured Artists: Walter Anderson, Romare Bearden, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Robert Gwathmey, William Halsey, Carl Holty, Claude Howell, Marie Hull, Gregory Ivy, William Henry Johnson, Margaret Law, Blanche Lazzell, Edith London, Frank London, Robert Neal, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, Will Henry Stevens, Maltby Sykes, Anna Heyward Taylor, Howard Thomas, Eugene Thomason, Hale Woodruff, Edmund Yaghjian