Stories to Tell, Memories to Keep: Folk Art in the South
Morris Museum of Art
On display through Aug. 30
706-724-7501
themorris.org

 

AUGUSTA, GA - Folk art is truly indefinable; perhaps that’s what makes it so fascinating.

Whether it’s the materials used or the subject matter presented, it speaks to us in ways that other art forms don’t.

“This is work that comes from all kinds of places. In some cases, I think it really is something more primeval than one would expect from a trained artist,” said Kevin Grogan, director and curator of the Morris Museum of Art.

In the Morris’ newest exhibit, 60 pieces from regional folk artists, including Lonnie Holley, Nellie Mae Rowe, Charley Kinney, Mary Proctor, Bill Traylor, Clementine Hunter, Lorenzo Scott, Minnie Evans, George Andrews and Howard Finster, are displayed.

“The point of the exhibition really is to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the Morris Museum’s collection of folk art, which has grown to be quite spectacular over the years,” Grogan said.

One of the highlights of the exhibit is an installation piece called “Sitting Bull” by George Andrews, a Madison, Ga., native.

“It’s one of those pieces that, as a lot of folk art, changes as it reconfigures and is never quite the same thing twice.”

The artists represented have no formal training and their education does not extend beyond the sixth grade. Their talent, however, is boundless.

“They are, without exception, creating the most sophisticated imagery that they can with the tools that they’ve got, and is really to a different kind of purpose than the memorialization that a sophisticated, academy-trained portrait painter might develop.”

And the pieces they create tell rich stories.

“These are people who are finding modes of expression that suit their expressive need… in some cases, this is kind of the visual equivalent of the developed oral tradition.”