Review: “Southern/Modern” at the North Carolina Mint Museum

The Mint Museum in Uptown Charlotte is the ideal setting for a retrospective of artists from the early 20th century American South. The institution was North Carolina’s first art museum, founded in 1936, and today houses the largest art collection in the Southeast. one of the museums. However, “Southern/Modern: Rediscovering Southern Art in the First Half of the Twentieth Century” does not come entirely from this collection. It’s a collaborative touring exhibition that first started at the Georgia Museum of Art, then moved to First Art Museum in Nashville, then to the Dickson Gallery and Gardens in Arkansas, before finally landing in Charlotte last October.

“Southern/Modern” is an ode to those American artists who worked in the states below the Mason-Dixon Line, west along the Mississippi River, or even to artists who worked outside the South but found artistic inspiration by visiting the region. Curators Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha Severens take a broad range of approaches and key themes, including time and place, in the exhibition of more than 100 paintings and works on paper , race, family relationships, and social struggles.

Its art history is extensive and aims to “provide a fuller, richer, and more accurate overview of artistic activity in the American South,” according to the museum. Mint Museum President and CEO Todd Herman said in a statement that a particular goal is to “open the door to honest conversations about Southern culture during this time period.” John Biggers, Dusti Bongé, Marie Hull, Jacob Lawrence and Blanche Lazere are on display here There are works by artists who worked in the South between the early 1900s and 1950, such as Blanche Lazzell, as well as works by Romare Bearden and Carroll Cloar.

Many of the paintings on display delve into the heart of rural life, highlighting the labor and spirit of cotton workers. These include Thomas Hart Benton’s evocative depictions of farmers and horses, and Bongé’s Where shrimp pickers live (1940), a dramatic scene of laundry hanging to dry between buildings. Renowned Mexican-American artist Elizabeth Catlett is best known for her sculptures, and her work was recently included in a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. war workers (1943). This powerful portrait captures the resilience and pain etched on a black man’s face, evoking the struggles of his journey. Equally moving are the works of Carol Clore stories told by my mother (1955), a surreal yet poignant depiction of a woman in a black dress standing alone in the snow.

The exhibition also makes room for abstract works, which provide a striking contrast to the figurative works on display. Highlights include works by Elaine De Kooning Montenegro #6 (1948), a striking example of her leadership in the Abstract Expressionist movement, a role she shared with her husband Willem de Kooning. will henry stevens Untitled (1944) offers another abstract gemstone with a fascinating interpretation of its color gradations and form. Charles H. Walther adds geometric elements to this collection Reversible image (1937) is striking for its sharp abstraction. A key figure in Baltimore’s avant-garde art scene, Walter introduced European modernism to early American abstract art after studying in Paris from 1906 to 1908, and his work encapsulates the cross-cultural influences that shaped the art of the region and era.

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“Southern/Modern” also brought belated attention to female artists, whose status at the time was overshadowed by their male counterparts. Many of their names may not be familiar, but this kind of exhibition can give you a deeper understanding of American art history and the perseverance of those who struggled to make a living as artists.

The exhibition also highlights the ways in which modern art was born in the South and developed in tandem with global movements. It traces how abstraction became an important force even during periods when it was ignored—as evidenced by Walter’s loss of his teaching position for promoting abstraction to his students. Seemingly mundane depictions of rural life, from cotton fields to front porches, gain new resonance and perhaps even relevance when viewed through the lens of time, revealing layers of meaning that might once have been overlooked. One can only hope that similar exhibitions will be held in the Northeast and West, telling more untold stories and filling gaps in our collective understanding of American art.

“Southern/Modern: Rediscovering Southern Art in the First Half of the Twentieth Century” will be on display at the North Carolina Mint Museum through February 2, 2025.