The history of South Carolina comes into focus in a dramatic new exhibition, Art & Artists of South Carolina, on view February 24, 2009–January 3, 2010.  This expansive historic installation is complemented by three others that feature the Charleston Renaissance, the paintings of Florence native William H. Johnson, and the late autobiographical work of South Carolinian Jasper Johns.

Art & Artists of South Carolina brings together sixty paintings, prints, photographs, and sculpture that testify to war and peace, politics, class struggle, and the wonders of nature. The exhibition includes twelve recent additions to the Museum collection, several of which will be key acquisitions for the 2009 Museum Antiques Show. Among them is an 1851 marble bust by the neoclassical sculptor Hiram Powers, depicting Catherine Hampton, sister of Confederate war hero Wade Hampton III. It was Kate Hampton who watched over her brother’s family and lands while he parried with General William T. Sherman as the Civil War neared its end.

A large alkaline-glazed jar by slave potter Dave Drake stands in simple majesty at the center of the gallery. A stirring example of 19th century Edgefield pottery, it is also important as one of Drake’s rare poem jars; he carved simple verses into some of his jars, an accomplishment all the more impressive because it was forbidden to teach slaves to read and write.

The artists presented in this exhibition range from European immigrants to Charleston society, from those who were simply visiting South Carolina to those who arrived and stayed to live and work.

The artistic journey begins in 1726 with Man in Armor, a pastel portrait by Henrietta Johnston of Charleston, the first professional female artist in America. Its fashionable style is echoed in the 1757 Portrait of Mrs. Henry Izard by Jeremiah Theus, an artist known to copy costumes from English prints for the adornment of his colonial benefactors.

A series of historic portraits and scenes includes a drawing by Tompkins Matteson, who depicted the heroism of Greenville’s own Dicey Langston, and William Ranney’s re-creation of Francis Marion’s crossing of the Pee Dee during the American Revolution. There are other recollections of war by artists such as John Ross Key, who witnessed the Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Siege of Charleston Harbor, 1863, and Alexander Loemans, who recreated the scene after the Union assault on Battery Wagner, in which a regiment of African-Americans from Massachusetts met near-total destruction in 1863.

There is ample appreciation for the wilderness and its creatures. Long Billed Curlew, 1837, is a hand colored engraving by John James Audubon that contrasts with Mark Catesby's White Billed Woodpecker, 1735, printed more than a century earlier. British-born artist Joshua Shaw painted Driving Deer, Scene on Stony Creek, Catawba River, South Carolina, 1820, from the same journey that led him to create View of the Reedy River, the first known painting of Greenville.

Everyday life is likewise represented, not always in an idyllic way. In A Southern Plantation, 1881, William Aiken Walker depicts sharecroppers working in a field, while J. Campbell Phillips’ Banjo Player, Weymouth Plantation, SC, presents a folksy view of rural Jim Crow-era poverty. Henry Gasser painted Turner’s Grocery, 1942, in Spartanburg, while Edmund Yaghjian depicted Columbia in 1955 in Morning on Huger Street, and William Halsey and Corrie McCallum apply modernist views to the Charleston street.

Art & Artists of South Carolina includes works by the four leading figures of the Charleston Renaissance: Anna Heyward Taylor, Alfred Hutty, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, and Elizabeth O'Neill Verner. They led a group of lowcountry artists, many of them women, who tried to reinvigorate the state’s self-image, in tatters following the Civil War, Reconstruction, and World War I. A related exhibition, The Charleston Renaissance, offers a broader view of this phenomenon in paintings that feature Charleston street scenes, iconic architecture, and lush views of the lowcountry.

Jasper Johns: Just Thinking of a Series of Dreams, brings together paintings, watercolors, and prints that Johns created after 1983, when his work began reflecting on his South Carolina childhood. The exhibition, which includes the artist’s two most recent prints, explores the enigmatic "Green Angel" images as well as the face motif originally inspired by Picasso’s 1936 painting, Woman in a Straw Hat.

Sunday gallery talks

Related programming offers the opportunity to explore the exhibitions in many ways. There will be gallery talks at 2:00 pm each Sunday in March, while Thursday @ 6:30 programs also focus on the exhibition.

Sunday, March 1: The Curator’s View: From Johnston to Johns, South Carolina’s Artistic Legacy (Martha R. Severens)

Sunday, March 8: South Carolina in the Early Years: From Colony to the Civil War

Sunday, March 15: The Great Renewal: the Charleston Renaissance (Martha R. Severens)

Sunday, March 22: Seeking his Artistic Identity: William H. Johnson

Sunday, March 29: Ties that Bind: Jasper Johns and South Carolina

Thursdays @ 6:30
Short programs that are both educational and entertaining will be featured at 6:30 on Thursday evenings.

Thursday, February 26: The African-American Presence in South Carolina Art, a gallery talk

Thursday, March 5:  Artists Talk—Ceramic artists Sharon Campbell and Bob Chance discuss the work of potter Dave Drake

Thursday, March 12: Mark Catesby: An Early Naturalist in South Carolina, video and discussion

Thursday, March 19: The Tradition of Audubon comes alive in a demonstration by artist Bruce Bunch

Art & Artists of South Carolina will close briefly on September 6, 2009, reopening September 23, 2009. Jasper Johns: Just Thinking of a Series of Dreams, will be on view through September 27. The Charleston Renaissance closes September 6, and William H. Johnson: Native Son, closes on October 4.

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