Overview

"Drawn from a companion exhibition, Southern/Modern is the first book to survey progressive art created in the American South during the first half of the twentieth century. Featuring twelve essays, this lavishly illustrated volume catalogs works from the exhibition and assesses a broader body of contextual pieces to offer a fascinating, multipronged look at modernism's thriving presence in the South—until now, something largely overlooked in histories of American art. Contributors take a broad view of the region, considering artists working in the states below the Mason-Dixon Line and those bordering the Mississippi River. It examines the central roles played by women and artists of color, providing a fuller, richer, and more accurate overview of the artistic activity in the region than has been previously presented. The book is structured around key themes, including the embrace of ""high"" modernism, the importance of emerging university programs and artist colonies, the depiction of rural and urban modern life, and the role of artists from the South who left and artists from outside the region who came to the South seeking new subjects. Contributors are Daniel Belasco, Katelyn D. Crawford, William Underwood Eiland, William R. Ferris, Shawnya Harris, Todd Herman, Karen Towers Klacsmann, Leo G. Mazow, Christopher C. Oliver, Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Martha R. Severens, Jonathan Stuhlman, Rebecca VanDiver, and Jonathan Frederick Walz."

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9781469674087

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Reviews

"A rich book [that] makes the case that modernism flourished in the South despite less recognition then and systemic exclusion since. . . . In a big sense, Southern/Modern is more than an aesthetic story. It is proof of alternate stories in the South.""--Clarion-Ledger/Hattiesburg American Of the many strengths of Southern/Modern, a daring and revisionist show about the American South . . . the one that follows you out to your car is the alternate history of modern art it proposes. . . . This is a model exhibition: a targeted provincial study of the innovations we too often associate with Paris and New York.--New York Times"

Author Information

Jonathan Stuhlman is senior curator of American art at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. Martha R. Severens was curator at the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenfield, South Carolina, from 1992 to 2010.

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