Throwback Thursday: “Romantic Spirits”
Today's Throwback Thursday is a shout out to our friends at The Johnson Collection with their traveling exhibition "Romantic Spirits: Nineteenth Century Paintings of the South from the Johnson Collection," that came to our museum back in 2015! "Romantic Spirits" chronicled the cultural evolution and concepts of the romantic movement as it unfolded in fine art of the American South.
Having had its genesis in European literature and art, romanticism founds its way into the cultural output of the young republic, both North and South. The same ideals that imbued the canvases of the Hudson River School also colored the art of painters who found their inspiration and audience below the Mason-Dixon Line. "Romantic Spirits" featured 32 prominent artists from this era, including William Dickinson Washington, William Thompson Russell Smith, Gustave Henry Mosler, Thomas Addison Richards, Joseph Rusling Meeker, Robert Walter Weir, and Thomas Sully, among others. The exhibition and its corresponding catalogue, written by art historian Estill Curtis Pennington, delineates the historical, social, and cultural forces that profoundly influenced these artists’ aesthetic sensibilities.
What began as an interest in paintings by Carolina artists in 2002 has grown to encompass over eight hundred objects with provenances that span the centuries and chronicle the cultural evolution of the American South. Today, the Johnson Collection counts iconic masterworks among its holdings, as well as representative pieces by a depth and breadth of artists, native and visiting, whose lives and legacies form the foundation of the field of Southern art history. From William D. Washington's The Burial of Latane to Malvin Gray Johnson's Roll Jordan Roll, the collection embraces the region's rich history and confronts its complexities. The contributions of women artists, ranging from Helen Maria Turner-only the third woman elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design-to Alma Woodsey Thomas-the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art-are accorded deserved attention, as are the landmark accomplishments of American artists of African descent such as Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, William Henry Johnson, Leo Twiggs, and Hale Woodruff. The collection actively seeks to advance interest in the pivotal role that art of the South plays in the larger context of American art and to contribute to the canon of art historical literature.
Did you get to see this beautiful exhibition? If you'd like to learn more about the Johnson Collection, be sure to check out their website at www.TheJohnsonCollection.org.
Image Credits: Gallery views, installation of "Romantic Spirits" at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, 2015. Blowing Rock, NC.