Four New Exhibitions Highlight April at the Art Museum

The Greenville County Museum of Art opens four new exhibitions this April, offering visitors a diverse and engaging selection of visual art.

Painter and collagist Katherine Porter offers dynamic and colorful abstractions in the exhibition Katherine Porter: Celestial Electric Set, which opens to the public on Wednesday, April 2 and runs through June 1. Porter was born in Iowa, but her passion for places has taken her to such disparate cities as Montreal, Canada; and Portland, Maine; Paris, France; and Madison, Wisconsin.

Porter’s abstract views of the landscape are at the core of Celestial Electric Set, which also features elements of political symbolism, part of Porter’s mission since her earliest paintings. Her paintings are big, bold, and vigorous, conversing in a visual language of floating discs intersecting with arcs and spiraling lines.

The Museum of Art is presenting the Porter exhibition to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Emrys Foundation, a Greenville organization that promotes excellence in literature and visual arts. Porter will be part of a 6:30 pm program on Thursday, April 3, which features three Emrys members offering poetic interpretations of her paintings. The artist will also be meeting with local artists and working with school groups during her visit to Greenville. A publication that examines Porter’s work and includes the 25th anniversary Emrys Journal is available in the Museum Shop.

While Katherine Porter is a new face to Greenville, the work of an old friend anchors another new exhibition that celebrates the of watercolor medium and the influence of Andrew Wyeth in contemporary painting. Masters of Watercolor: Andrew Wyeth and His Contemporaries compares and contrasts Wyeth with such realist painters as Stephen Scott Young, Henry Casselli, Hubert Shuptrine, and Mary Whyte. The installation also includes historical examples from the Museum collection by artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, and Charles Burchfield—icons of the American Scene movement who were influential in the early development of Wyeth’s distinguished career.

The watercolors of Andrew Wyeth play a central role in exhibitions at the Museum of Art, and they also guide a philosophy for educational programs that reach adults and children throughout the region. Masters of Watercolor will be a centerpiece of the summer visiting season and guide summer art camps. It’s on view April 2 through September 28.

The intensely structured and tactile paintings of Greenville artist Paul Yanko are featured in a Member Showcase exhibition beginning April 10. Yanko, who teaches at the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, uses masking tape to define a framework that he embellishes with layers of paint. The artist will explain the method and the results in a 6:30 pm gallery talk on Thursday, April 10. Paul Yanko: Member Showcase will be open through June 1.

Later in the month, the Museum presents an overview of the career of Dr. David C. Driskell, (left, see Eruption, Mt. St. Helens, 1980) who is one of the pre-eminent African-American artists and educators of our time. A North Carolina native, Driskell advanced the understanding of the evolution of black visual art in America as a professor at Talladega, Howard, and Fisk Universities and capped his academic career as chair of the art department at the University of Maryland. Driskell is also a noted consultant in African-American art, advising actor Bill Cosby and his wife Camille on the formation of their collection, which he described in the book The Other Side of Color.

The artist’s own creativity is documented in the Greenville exhibition, on view April 19 through June 15. A recent publication, David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar, will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop. The Greenville County Museum of Art is located at 420 College Street, on Heritage Green in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

The Museum opens at 11 am Tuesday through Saturday and at 1 pm on Sunday, closing at 5 except on Thursdays, when the galleries remain open until 8:00. The Museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays. Admission is always absolutely free.