Southern/Modern: Rediscovering Southern Art from the First Half of the Twentieth Century

By Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha R. Severens

Inspired by a companion exhibition, Southern/Modern is the first book to survey progressive art created in the American South during the first half of the twentieth century. Featuring twelve essays, this lavishly illustrated volume includes all the works from the exhibition and assesses a broader body of contextual pieces to offer a fascinating, multipronged look at modernism's thriving presence in the South—until now, something largely overlooked in histories of American art. Contributors take a broad view of the region, considering artists working in the states below the Mason-Dixon Line and those bordering the Mississippi River. It examines the central roles played by women and artists of color, providing a fuller, richer, and more accurate overview of the artistic activity in the region than has been previously presented. The book is structured around key themes, including the embrace of "high" modernism, the importance of emerging university programs and artist colonies, the depiction of rural and urban modern life, and the role of artists from the South who left and artists from outside the region who came to the South seeking new subjects.

Contributors are Daniel Belasco, Katelyn D. Crawford, William Underwood Eiland, William R. Ferris, Shawnya Harris, Todd A. Herman, Karen Towers Klacsmann, Leo G. Mazow, Christopher C. Oliver, Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Martha R. Severens, Jonathan Stuhlman, Rebecca VanDiver, and Jonathan Frederick Walz.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Release date: Apr 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781469674094

Book preview

Southern/Modern

Rediscovering Southern Art FROM THE First Half of the Twentieth Century

SOUTHERN / MODERN

EDITED BY

Jonathan Stuhlman & Martha R. Severens

FOREWORD BY

WILLIAM R. FERRIS

The Mint Museum in Association with the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

Lead support for Southern/Modern was generously provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional funding for this publication comes from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Southern/Modern was also made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alfred and Betsy Brand Fund at The Mint Museum. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the Infusion Fund and its generous donors and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The Mint Museum in association with the University of North Carolina Press

© 2023 The Mint Museum of Art

All rights reserved

Designed and typeset by Lindsay Starr in Quadraat and Din Next

Manufactured in Canada

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Herman, Todd A., writer of director’s welcome. | Ferris, William R., writer of foreword. | Stuhlman, Jonathan, editor. | Severens, Martha R., 1945– editor. | Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), host institution.

Title: Southern/modern : rediscovering southern art from the first half of the twentieth century / edited by Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha R. Severens ; forewords by Todd A. Herman and William R. Ferris.

Description: Chapel Hill : The Mint Museum in association with the University of North Carolina Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022045780 | ISBN 9781469674087 (cloth ; alkaline paper) | ISBN 9781469674094 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Art, American—Southern States—20th century—Exhibitions. | Modernism (Art)—Southern States—Exhibitions. | Art, Modern—Exhibitions. | LCGFT: Exhibition catalogs.

Classification: LCC N6520 .S686 2023 | DDC 709.7509/04—DC23/ENG/20221021

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022045780

This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition Southern/Modern, organized by The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC www.mintmuseum.org

Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, June 17–December 10, 2023

Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, January 25–April 21, 2024

Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, July 14–September 29, 2024

The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, October 26, 2024–February 2, 2025

FRONT COVER: Dusti Bongé, Where the Shrimp Pickers Live.

© Dusti Bongé Art Foundation.

BACK COVER, TOP: Will Henry Stevens, Untitled.

The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC.

BACK COVER, BOTTOM, AND FRONTISPIECE (FIGURE 1): Aaron Douglas (1899–1979), The Toiler, circa 1935. Oil or tempera on board, 8¾ × 6⅝ inches. The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC.

CONTENTS

DIRECTOR’S WELCOME

TODD A. HERMAN

FOREWORD

Modernism in the American South

WILLIAM R. FERRIS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1

Red Clay under My Nails

How a Connecticut Yankee Dug into the South

JONATHAN STUHLMAN

CHAPTER 2

The Alchemy of Modernism

Extractive Industries and the Southern Modern Landscape

JEFFREY RICHMOND-MOLL

CHAPTER 3

Earnest Endeavors

Art Colonies in the Deep South

WILLIAM UNDERWOOD EILAND

CHAPTER 4

Bringing Modernism Home

KAREN TOWERS KLACSMANN

CHAPTER 5

Labor, Lynching, and the Lord

Parsing the Iconography of African American Representation in Southern Art

REBECCA VANDIVER

CHAPTER 6

The Sonic Foundations of Southern Modernism

LEO G. MAZOW

CHAPTER 7

Carrying the South

Artists Leaving and Returning

KATELYN D. CRAWFORD

CHAPTER 8

The Unprecedented Flowering of the Graphic Arts

MARTHA R. SEVERENS

CHAPTER 9

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Pioneers of Southern Modernism

SHAWNYA HARRIS

CHAPTER 10

Clashing Currents

Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Modernism in Richmond, 1938–1970

CHRISTOPHER C. OLIVER

CHAPTER 11

Alma Thomas’s Southern Draw/l

JONATHAN FREDERICK WALZ

CHAPTER 12

Inside Rooms

Abstract Painting in the South

DANIEL BELASCO

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

SUGGESTED READING

CONTRIBUTORS

PHOTO CREDITS

INDEX

FIGURE 2. Carroll Cloar (1913–1993), Story Told by My Mother, 1955. Casein tempera on Masonite, 28⁵/16 × 40¼ inches.

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN. Bequest of Mrs. C. M. Gooch. 80.3.16.

DIRECTOR’S WELCOME

TODD A. HERMAN

THE canon of art history is rightly being examined. I intentionally don’t say reexamined because it seems to have moved through history with a Teflon coating that repelled any serious attempts to question the motivations and criteria that created it. Many from my generation and earlier played a role in perpetuating that narrow understanding of art and its creators. The enlightened individuals promoting feminist theory, queer theory, and so on, who were once relegated to the fringe have now thankfully been identified as the parents of a wholesale assessment of the history of art that we are enjoying now. Art history teaches critical thinking, and this latest generation of curators and scholars are no longer content to accept the lineage of art history without question. Also broken is the historical truism of museum professionals largely coming from a very narrow socioeconomic group. As the field has broadened its professional ranks (with much work yet to be done), the different backgrounds, experiences, and narratives brought to the museum conference table have equally broadened the thinking about who gets represented in the museum. One could claim that the long-standing mission of museums is coming to fruition, with its own critical evaluation being spoken with diverse voices that have been inspired for decades within its walls.

This is a long lead-up to introduce the exhibition at hand, Southern/Modern. But the exhibition’s genesis is born out of this same curiosity and desire for a broader lens. Stereotypes and long-held beliefs about southern sophistication—parroted by critics in urban centers in the North—kept southern artists firmly trapped under the weight of the Mason-Dixon Line. This, of course, was not an impenetrable wall. The southern artist Jasper Johns found wide acceptance, success, and acclaim when he moved to New York from South Carolina, but Carroll Cloar, who had moved to New York from Arkansas, had won a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, fell into artistic obscurity when he returned to Memphis even though he continued to produce luminous and quirky paintings. During those years, the title Southern/Modern would have been considered antithetical.

One of the great advantages of working in a museum, particularly a museum in the South, is that you get exposed to artists who never appeared in your college textbooks. Who is this artist? I had never heard of these artists, but they are really good. These are common refrains among curators and directors alike. Their cumulation has led to the current exhibition. Whether or not these artists were on the cutting edge or breaking new artistic ground, their work is born from a vision that is influenced by their history and surroundings. These artists channel the southern stories they hear from southern voices that are unlike what you find in other regions of the country. This exhibition will very likely introduce the viewer to a number of artists who are unfamiliar—that is exactly the point. Our goal here is not to convince you that Will Henry Stevens is a better or more important artist than, say, Jackson Pollock but instead to propose that art history and art in America is not monolithic. There are as many artistic voices as there are neighborhoods and communities. We are showing you just some, and I hope this inspires you to look for the others.

An exhibition like this requires the trust and belief of many individuals to make it a reality. The enthusiasm we received from those listed here made this project a joy—even during a pandemic. First, I want to thank our lenders, whose objects make these stories come alive, and the scholars who gave those stories a voice by contributing salient essays to the catalog and insights that made this exhibition better. A special thank you to Jonathan Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum, and Martha R. Severens for spearheading this project. Their dedication to presenting these southern artists to a broad audience has been unfailing. I also want to thank the curators and leadership of our collaborators and exhibition venues, the Georgia Museum of Art, the Frist Art Museum, and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens for believing in the project and offering wisdom and judgment when needed.

Finally, I want to thank the Luce Foundation for American Art for its lead support on the project, and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, whose support is essential to bringing exhibitions like Southern/Modern to the public.

Todd A. Herman

President and CEO, The Mint Museum

FOREWORD

Modernism in the American South

WILLIAM R. FERRIS

SOUTHERN/MODERN opens a welcome, long-overdue window on the relationship between modernism and southern art. We are indebted to Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha Severens for gathering both the art featured in the exhibition and the distinguished writers whose essays in this accompanying publication enrich our understanding of the region’s visual culture during the first half of the twentieth century.

When we think of modernism in the South, our minds understandably turn to Black Mountain College in western North Carolina. The historic convergence of faculty and students who gathered there from Europe (including Jewish refugee scholars), Japan, the American South, and the nation forever redefined both southern and American art, as well as architecture, literature, and music. Their names include Anni and Josef Albers, John Cage, Robert Creely, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Shōji Hamada, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Charles Olson, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly. Yet, in reality, Black Mountain was an idyllic enclave unto itself, and there was little interaction with southern visual artists.

In the American South various forms of modernism were already alive and well, a vital, pulsating force in the region. Speech and storytelling in the nineteenth-century southern frontier border worlds like the Mississippi River inspired Mark Twain and later William Faulkner and Ralph Ellison to embrace folk speech and music as essential components of their modernist prose. While Faulkner’s turgid literary style is deeply influenced by the work of James Joyce, he also used a stream-of-consciousness pattern that he heard in the southern storytelling tradition, where tales run on without conclusion and stories are placed within stories in a pattern similar to his fiction. The appearance of blues poetry by W. C. Handy and Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance inspired successive generations of Black writers, including Sterling Brown, Sterling Plumpp, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright.

Modernism was a natural fit with southern musical forms like jazz, blues, country music, and gospel. Composers like William Grant Still and Aaron Copland embraced those musical types in powerful ways. Still’s Symphony No. 1 Afro-American and In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy and Copland’s Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring, and Rodeo are part of the canon of classic American music.

Artists Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Romare Bearden were born or grew up in Texas, South Carolina, and North Carolina, respectively, where they discovered folk art forms from quilts to paintings and sculpture that inspired their own art. Rauschenberg’s Bed, Johns’s Target with Four Faces, and Bearden’s Patchwork Quilt were inspired by southern quiltmakers who used collage to engage the viewer.

Southern vernacular architectural designs such as the dog trot, with its open central hallway that allows breezes to cool the interior during hot summer months, similarly influenced architects in the United States. After visiting a dog-trot home in Tennessee with his family, William Turnbull used its floor plan in the design of his spectacular Davidow House in Haena, Hawaii, as well as homes in Sea Ranch, California.

North Carolina State University’s School of Architecture, founded in 1920, was a major force in modernist architecture. Its visiting professors included Buckminster Fuller, Lewis Mumford, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Phil Freelon graduated from NC State in 1975 and recently led the design team for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum clearly reflects Freelon’s modernist vision.

FIGURE 3. Romare Bearden (1911–1988), The Rites of Spring, circa 1940. Gouache on cardboard, 31½ × 48 inches.

Collection of Billy E. Hodges.

How, then, do we position modernism within a region that is viewed as anchored in the past and resistant to change? The South, like the rest of the nation, was transformed in the early twentieth century by changes in both its rural and urban worlds, and its artists, writers, musicians, and architects all wrestled in their work with how to respond to those changes. Southern/Modern encourages us to look deeply at how southern artists, in particular, responded to various forms of modernity.

Modernity was viewed as a racial threat by some white southerners who created and strove to maintain a mythic South symbolized by southern belles and columned mansions. To intimidate Black southerners, they erected statues of Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee in public places. The recent removal of Lee’s statue in Richmond, Virginia, demonstrates the victory of modernity in those public venues.

Southern life itself is flush with surprising, unexpected art forms that fit comfortably with modernism. In his essay in my book The Storied South (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) Sam Gilliam reflects thoughtfully on how modernism and abstraction shape southern art: Jazz is an extension of the blues. It contains relics of the South in its art. This is also true in the colors of Kenneth Noland, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. I believe abstract content has a valid place in talking about the South and southern art. I have never felt separate from southern landscape, southern attitude, and southern humor, they are the basis for my art and my creative work.

Southern/Modern reminds us that modernism is a key to understanding the evolving American South and how its people grappled with the past and the demons of racism, classism, and sexism. Modernity has always been a door to a reinvented New South, and we witness that transition in the art featured in this fine publication.

William R. Ferris

Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History emeritus and senior associate director emeritus, Center for Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

FIGURE 4. Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (1900–1948), Poppies, circa 1938. Oil on canvas, 36¼ × 26¼ inches.

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL. Bequest of Charles E. Shannon. 1997.0002.0001.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WHILE many museum projects like Southern/Modern are years in the making, only a few take more than a decade to come together. It was no small task to bring this complex undertaking to fruition and it could not have been done without the support, insight, and encouragement of those listed here.

From the beginning, the scope and content of Southern/Modern was guided by the wisdom of curators, directors, scholars, and others who believe passionately that the art produced in the South deserves to be better recognized. Many of them gathered for an early brainstorming session at The Mint Museum in 2013, including William Andrews, Graham Boettcher, Jenine Culligan, Kevin Grogan, Rick Gruber, Robert M. Hicklin, David Houston, Everette James, Estill (Buck) Pennington, Kathleen Robbins, Martha Severens, Kevin Sharp, Will South, Sylvia Yount, and Kristen Miller Zohn. Also joining us that day was Bill Ferris, whose boundless enthusiasm and advocacy for the project from its inception has been truly inspirational and who kindly connected me with the University of North Carolina Press, the publisher of this book. As we continued to develop Southern/Modern after this meeting, we reached out to numerous colleagues at museums and galleries across the nation, seeking input on the checklist. To all those who responded and who generously provided leads and ideas, we are tremendously grateful for your knowledge and contributions. Last but certainly not least of those attending the initial meeting to be singled out for extra thanks is Martha Severens. Because of Martha’s deep knowledge of southern art and the long list of her impressive contributions to the field, I invited her to join me as the project’s co-lead. It was one of the best decisions I have made in my professional career. Martha not only has been a joy to collaborate with but has also kept both me and the project on track more times than I can count. Her wise counsel, patience, keen eye for detail, and talents as both a curator and an editor have contributed immensely to Southern/Modern’s success. I could not have asked for a better teammate.

While we are thrilled to be hosting the exhibition at The Mint Museum, we are also delighted to share it with three other venues and their audiences as well. The Georgia Museum of Art has a long history of organizing exhibitions focusing on southern art and artists and has been a close collaborator since Southern/Modern’s inception. I am grateful for the time that Bill Eiland, Shawnya Harris, and Jeffrey Richmond-Moll have taken to meet for planning, as well as for the contributions they made as the exhibition took shape. Elizabeth Abston, Christopher Oliver, and Roger Ward also participated in some of these important early planning meetings in Athens. It is always a pleasure to partner with the Dixon Gallery and Gardens; Kevin Sharp, Julie Pierotti, and their colleagues are gracious hosts and collaborators. Finally, I was so pleased when the Frist Art Museum’s chief curator, Mark Scala, relayed that his institution would also like to be a venue. It has been a delight to work with him and his team to bring Southern/Modern to Nashville.

I echo the gratitude of our president and CEO, Todd Herman, toward the Luce Foundation for American Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, without whose support Southern/Modern would not have been possible. The Betsy and Alfred Brand Fund also provided critical support during the early stages of the project.

This publication does not merely document the exhibition that it was created to accompany but is meant to expand upon many of the show’s themes, offering a broad range of insightful perspectives to the region’s art and artists and acting as a point of departure for future generations of scholars as well as an introduction to the topic for the general public. I am extremely grateful to all of those who took the time to write for us, for their adherence to tight deadlines, and for their grace as we worked through the editing process: Bill Ferris, Jeff Richmond-Moll, Bill Eiland, Karen Klacsmann, Rebecca VanDiver, Leo Mazow, Kate Crawford, Martha Severens, Shawnya Harris, Chris Oliver, Jonathan Frederick Walz, and Daniel Belasco.

Since I first proposed this project over a decade ago, I have benefited from the support and guidance of the leadership here at The Mint Museum: first, Director Kathleen Jameson, then Interim President and CEO Bruce LaRowe, and, finally, President and CEO Todd Herman and Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art Jen Sudul Edwards. All have provided critical encouragement and support as Southern/Modern developed. Many others on the Mint’s team have played key roles as well, including Associate Registrar Eric Speer, who met the challenges of opening an exhibition of more than one hundred objects at a museum other than our own with boundless patience, tremendous attention to detail, and good cheer; Chief Registrar Katherine Steiner, who stepped in to provide wise counsel when needed; Senior Director of Collections and Exhibitions Michele Leopold and Exhibition Coordinator Rebecca O’Malley, who ensured that we remained on schedule and on budget; and Chief Advancement Officer Hillary Cooper, Director of Corporate Relations and Advancement Operations Amy Tribble, Grants and Advancement Coordinator Martha Snell, and Leadership Giving Manager Kitty Hall, all of whom worked tirelessly to secure the funding to make this entire project possible. Finally, without the diligence and sleuthing of our fantastic curatorial assistant, Jamila Brown, this book would have many fewer images for readers to see and enjoy!

Perhaps most important, were it not for the generosity of our lenders, the exhibition would not have been possible. From those who lent more than a dozen objects to those who parted with just one, and from public institutions to those individual owners who wish to remain anonymous, I am tremendously grateful to you for sharing your treasures with the public. To the directors, curators, and registrars at the following institutions, we are in your debt: the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the Amistad Research Center; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Art Bridges; the Baltimore Museum of Art; Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archives; Birmingham Museum of Art; the Carnegie Museum of Art; the Columbus Museum; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; the Delta State University Art Gallery; the Dixon Gallery and Gardens; the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science; the Florence County Museum; the Gibbes Museum of Art; the Hecksher Museum of Art; the Johnson Collection; the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art; the Louisiana Art and Science Museum; the LSU Museum of Art; the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; the Memphis Museum of Science and History; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Mississippi Museum of Art; the Mobile Museum of Art; the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts; the Morris Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art; the North Carolina Museum of Art; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; the Phillips Collection; the Saint Louis Art Museum; the Spartanburg County Museum of Art; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; the Walter Anderson Museum; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro.

A number of galleries generously provided or facilitated loans, including Bill Hodges Gallery, David Lusk Gallery, Gallery C, LeMieux Galleries, and Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. Staff at Christie’s, Doyle, Neal, and Sotheby’s auction houses also generously helped with contacts and images. Many individuals have also provided critical counsel, innovative ideas, gentle criticism, and important suggestions to me over the years, including John Coffey, Margie Conrads, David Henderson, Valerie Leeds, Paul Manoguerra, Jerald Melberg, Peter Nisbet, Jason Schoen, Sarah Tignor, and Sylvia Yount.

Without the dedication and talents of the staff at the University of North Carolina Press, you would not be holding this book in your hands. I am especially grateful to Mark Simpson-Vos, Lucas Church, Catherine Hodorowicz, Mary Carley Caviness, Alex Martin, Lindsay Starr, and Elizabeth Orange. Thanks also to Fred Kameny, who prepared the index.

Finally, my thanks and love go out to my wife, Megan, and our sons, Justin and Finn. Had Megan not captured my heart when I moved to the South as a teenager, I would likely not have returned here with her in 2006 to begin raising our family. I have enjoyed tremendously exploring the region’s nooks and crannies with all of them ever since. Thanks to all three of you for keeping me laughing and young.

Jonathan Stuhlman

Senior curator of American art, The Mint Museum

FIGURE 5. Frank London (1876–1945), Tyranny of Survival, 1943. Oil on canvas, 42 × 30 inches.

Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA. 1992.010.

Southern/Modern

FIGURE 6. Edith London (1904–1997), Marine Still Life, 1953. Oil on canvas board, 24⅛ × 36⅛ inches.

The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC.

CHAPTER 1

Red Clay under My Nails

How a Connecticut Yankee Dug into the South

JONATHAN STUHLMAN

One place understood helps us understand all places better.

— EUDORA WELTY

SOUTHERN/MODERN, like many museum exhibitions, was born out of curiosity, a desire to know a subject more fully, and a wish to share that knowledge with a broader audience. When I began my tenure at The Mint Museum in 2006, the construction of a new building—which would include significantly more space for the display of the museum’s growing American art collection—was on the horizon. As I got to know our collection, began to think about what objects would be featured in the inaugural installation, and became acquainted with colleagues and other museum collections in the region, I quickly began to discover many fascinating artists with whom I was not familiar. Having worked previously at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, I knew of its groundbreaking 1983 exhibition Painting in the South, 1564–1980, but had not subsequently had the opportunity to dig deeply into the subject of southern art, which had been largely absent from my art history courses, or to consider how its impact had—or had not—affected later scholarship or led to a more complete and inclusive narrative of American art.

Through The Mint Museum’s collection, I was introduced to such artists as Clare Leighton (fig. 7), Eugene Thomason (fig. 8), Will Henry Stevens (fig. 9), Howard Thomas, George Bireline, Jesse Bardin (fig. 10), and Claude Howell, all of whom worked in North and South Carolina during the early and middle decades of the twentieth century, yet none of whom are typically incorporated into the current studies of the period. I also was able to learn more about three artists with whom I was already familiar: Romare Bearden (fig. 11), John Biggers, and Elliot Daingerfield. A review of the literature on these and other artists of the region led to the realization that while many had been the subject of solo exhibitions and monographs over the past few decades, there had been very few, if any, projects that sought to incorporate them into a broader narrative of American art history.

FIGURE 7. Clare Veronica Hope Leighton (1898–1989), Moonshine Still, 1951–52. Wood engraving, 7⅛ × 4⅞ inches.

The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Gift of Gabby Pratt. 2004.79.123.

FIGURE 8. Eugene Thomason (1895–1972), Boy with Chrysanthemums, 1936–37. Oil on canvas, 41⅜ × 32¼ inches.

The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Gift of Dr. A. Everette James Jr. and Jeanette Cross James. 1981.82.

Indeed, the South and its artists remain almost entirely absent from virtually every survey of American art, ranging from the textbook I used as an undergraduate, Wayne Craven’s American Art: History and Culture, to more recent projects devoted to looking closely at specific decades of artistic production in this country, such as the Brooklyn Museum’s 2011 Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties and the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2016 America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s.¹ More plentiful are exhibitions and publications that consider the art of a particular region, or even a particular state or city—New England, the West, California, Texas, Chicago, Boston, and yes, even the South.² Yet with a very few exceptions, I came to realize that a comprehensive look at this important period of artistic development in the South did not exist, and that its rich visual history would be difficult to incorporate into future studies of American art without a project that began to synthesize and weave together the scores of more-focused studies that had been produced by dedicated scholars in the region over the past forty years.³ For decades, the South has suffered from prejudices about the quality and importance of its cultural—and particularly its artistic—contributions. One could argue that the oft-cited snub by Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Joseph Downs, who opined in 1949 that little of artistic merit was made south of Baltimore continues to poison the discourse. The persistence and roots of this notion were explored most recently by art historian Naomi Slipp in her article Little of Artistic Merit?, which opened a recent issue of the journal Panorama dedicated to the art of the South.⁴ It is noteworthy that, despite its focus on the South, only one of the ten articles is dedicated to fine art being produced here during the first half of the twentieth century (Ali Printz’s The Modernist Appalachian Aesthetic: The Art of Patty Willis). As Southern/Modern reveals, a great deal of rich content from this important period is worthy of greater visibility and further study.

FIGURE 9. Will Henry Stevens (1881–1949), Untitled, 1944. Pastel on paper, 16 × 16 inches.

The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Gift of the Janet Stevens McDowell