Southern/Modern - by Jonathan Stuhlman & Martha R Severens (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition Southern/Modern, organized by The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC ...; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, June 17-December 10, 2023, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, January 25-April 21, 2024, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, July 14-September 29, 2024, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, October 26, 2024-February 2, 2025"--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

Inspired by 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 includes all the 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 A. Herman, Karen Towers Klacsmann, Leo G. Mazow, Christopher C. Oliver, Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Martha R. Severens, Jonathan Stuhlman, Rebecca VanDiver, and Jonathan Frederick Walz.

Review Quotes

"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

About the Author

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