Exhibit explores realities and fictions of plantation paintings

Mount Vernon, William Thompson Russell Smith, 1836-1876. Morris Museum of Art.

Picture a plantation. Would a scene from “Gone with the Wind” first come to mind? Might there be a tree-lined lane leading to a big house with tall columns surrounded by extensive fields of cotton or maybe tobacco or rice?

To some the plantation epitomizes the historic beauty of a verdant Southern landscape, or represents a nostalgic vision of gracious, leisure living. To others the image evoked is that of slavery and enforced labor, of life tied to and controlled by but distanced from that big house.

An exhibit opening August 23 at the Morris Museum of Art offers a rare opportunity to examine that dichotomy through art. Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art was organized by the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, S.C. and opened at the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville before traveling on to Charleston and now to Augusta.

Unlike some exhibitions, this one is not so much about the technical skill of the artists or the aesthetic quality of the images. Its focus extends beyond those aspects to explore the ways such images have shaped our perceptions about our history, ourselves and each other.

Included are works by well-known artists such as Eastman Johnson, William Aiken Walker, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, Thomas Hart Benton, Benny Andrews, Jonathan Green and Carrie Mae Weems. There are paintings, drawings, photographs, mixed media and installation works. Historical paintings that draw heavily on European landscape traditions are shown along with examples of plantation-related imagery, notably the celebrated work of enslaved potter Dave of the Edgefield district, and other slave-made objects that go beyond the utilitarian to incorporate elements of African heritage and ritual. Works by contemporary artists add diverse responses to images from the past.

In recent years, archeological discoveries have brought renewed interest in the architecture, culture and economy of plantation life. With this exhibit and the accompanying book, which has essays contributed by half a dozen scholars, the plantation image has been given a comprehensive study from both art historical and socioeconomic perspectives. Angela Mack, executive director of Charleston’s Gibbes Museum, said that because there are major plantation images in that museum’s collection, “we were inspired to lead an effort to unravel the realities and fictions that surround the subject matter.”

Angela Mack notes that some of the artists in the exhibition “created objects that today are emotionally charged, though not necessarily as the artists intended. By bringing together such varied creations, Landscape of Slavery tries to help untangle the complex emotions generated by these and scores of other images.” She will be in Augusta for a lecture and opening reception on August 28.

Augusta Artists exhibiting elsewhere

Kath Girdler Engler has opened a solo exhibit titled “The Natural Preservation of Form” at The Parthenon art museum in Nashville, Tenn. The show includes 15 full-size sculptures created from mixed media, paper pulp and natural and found objects. There are also eight assemblages.

The assemblages represent a new format for the Augusta artist. She describes them as “wall pieces in high relief but still using found objects: rocks, pine cones, tins, nails, pearls, leather, beads, feathers, bird nests, etc.” The works make reference to her recent visits to Australia and New Zealand, the latter being homeland to her mother, brother and sister. “I bring numerous bits back from every trip I take and integrate them in my work,” she said.

Her full-size sculptures focus primarily on the child-parent bond and sibling relationships, she said. “They are rich in texture and seem ancient, but are new.” That seems appropriate for a show at the Parthenon, which is itself a full-scale replica of the Athenian original that was recreated for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition.

The exhibit, which to Ms. Engler represents the culmination of more than two years of work, will remain on display through the end of October. http://www.nowplayingnashville.com/event/detail/117817

Artist Philip Morsberger has returned from England, where a highlight of this year’s summer visit was his investiture as an honorary fellow at Oxford University in recognition of his long and distinguished career. The ceremony conveyed a lifetime membership in St. Edmund Hall, one of the colleges that make up the historic university. Mr. Morsberger trained at Carnegie Institute and the Ruskin School of Drawing at Oxford in the 1950s, and held the position of Ruskin Master of Drawing at Oxford from 1971 to 1984, the sixth master in the school’s history and the first American appointed to that post.

Back stateside, he has recently become associated with Summit One Gallery in Highlands, N.C. He and Edward Rice, who is also back in town after spending some time in Ireland, will be the featured artists at Summit One August 30 – Oct. 1. The gallery has titled their show “Two Realities.” www.summitonegallery.com

Augusta State University professor Kristin Casaletto took a summer break from the classroom to participate in a faculty development seminar in Morocco and Spain where she explored the Islamic influence on the arts of the region.

She’s among the Augusta-based artists showing work out of town. Nine of her works are included in a show that will travel for the next couple of years. "Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate” originated from the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Mont., and features art made from hate literature that a human rights group took off the market and offered to artists for transformation into art.

She also will have work in a show titled “Identity” at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, opening Sept. 20. That same week she will open “Voices and Visions,” a solo show at the Georgia College and State University Museum in Milledgeville. On Sept. 18, she and Mary Childers, author of “Welfare Brat,” will discuss the role of the arts in social issues as part of an Art of Democracy consortium.

A bit farther away, her work will be featured in “Sognando la Realta” (dreaming reality), a group show with five artists at Mya Lurgo Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland. That one opens Oct. 3.

Closer to home, Broadstrokes Gallery artists will present their second annual River Island Art Show and Sale Aug. 22 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the River House, 1570 River Island Parkway, in Evans. A percentage of sales will benefit the Central Savannah River Land Trust. For more information, call 706-854-1937.