exhibitions
In Dialogue: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Mentor and Muse
September 3, 2022 – June 18, 2023
The African American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 – 1937) left the United States in 1891 for Europe to escape prejudice and continue his training as an artist.
Settling in Paris and later on the French coast, he won international fame for his genre scenes, his depictions of the French landscape and, most of all, his religious pictures. He also became a mentor and role model for a new generation of Black artists, who traveled to France in the 1910s and 1920s to seek his professional guidance and found similar artistic transcendence in Europe. This focused exhi- bition highlights Tanner’s impact on several younger artists: Palmer C. Hayden, William H. Johnson, William Edouard Scott and Hale Woodruff. It is anchored by an important Parisian cityscape by Tan - ner on extended loan from the Terra Foundation of American Art. “In Dialogue” is a series of installations in which the Georgia Museum of Art’s curators create focused, innovative conversations around works of art from the permanent collection. The series brings these familiar works to life by placing them in dialogue with objects by influential peers, related sketches and studies or even objects from later periods.
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937), “Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water,” ca. 1907. Etching on paper, 10 7/8 × 13 1/4 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase with funds provided by Lucy Minogue Rowland. GMOA 2022.276.
Curator: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, curator of American art Sponsor: Terra Foundation for American Art
Kristin Leachman: Longleaf Lines July 23, 2022 – February 12, 2023
In June 2020, artist Kristin Leachman traveled to an old- growth longleaf pine forest in southwest Georgia.
Longleaf forests are one of the most biologically rich ecosystems in the world, second only to tropical rainforests; however, today these forests primarily grow on private lands and are largely unfamiliar to the general public. Through their scale and intimacy, Leachman’s paintings collapse this sense of distance and offer viewers a physi - cally immersive experience. Focused on the longleaf’s bark forma- tions, her works enlarge these patterns into monumentally scaled biomorphic abstractions. Longleaf once spanned 90 million acres across the southern United States but declined to just 3 million acres after centuries of har- vesting for ship masts, railroad ties and turpentine farming. These forests would have been cleared entirely for development had it not been for quail hunting, which became popular in the 1800s. “Long- leaf Lines” represents part two of Leachman’s “Fifty Forests” proj- ect, which she began in 2010 in her adopted home state of California to document the self-organizing patterns in trees. The project is taking Leachman to various forested and deforested sites, protected
Kristin Leachman, “Longleaf 3,” 2021. Oil on canvas on panel, 54 × 72 inches. Courtesy of Kristin Leachman.
and unprotected lands, in each of the 50 U.S. states. By transcribing the unspoken language of trees’ structural integrity and biological resilience, Leachman explores the intersection of painting and the natural world. “Fifty Forests” also reflects upon the relationship between humans and trees. What is at stake, Leachman’s paintings ask, as our country continually struggles to reconcile its connection to nature with its extractive use of natural resources?
Curator: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, curator of American art
8
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker