Seeking the American South Through Art

It may not have been planned that way, but a new Nasher Museum of Art exhibition is exceptionally timely. From art that explores changing demographics in the region to an installation where a Confederate flag is unraveled from one thread at a time, Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art directly addresses issues of race, social change and identity currently at the core of numerous national and regional politics and debates.

“The exhibition has been four years in the making, but the timing of Southern Accent is especially meaningful now in the wake of Charleston, Orlando, Baton Rouge and countless other tragedies, and given the tense social and racial climate during this presidential election year," said Trevor Schoonmaker, chief curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art, and co-curator of the exhibition.

Amy Sherald, High Yella Masterpiece: We Ain’t No Cotton Pickin’ Negroes, 2011

"We’re an art museum, so exhibitions are our platform for starting conversations," Schoonmaker added. "I hope Southern Accent can create a space to reimagine the South in new ways and reframe the way we think about the South in contemporary art. At its best, art can help give shape to cultural and social change, promote needed discourse and even help build community.”

The exhibition opens Thursday, Sept. 1, and will run through Jan. 8. A free, opening party will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31, at the museum.

Above, William Eggleston, Jackson, Mississippi, c. 1969. Dye transfer print. Below, Douglas Bourgeois, A New Place to Dwell, 1987. Oil on panel.

William Faulkner once suggested that the South is not so much a “geographical place” as an “emotional idea.” Southern Accent looks at the South as an open-ended question to be explored and expanded. The exhibition encompasses a broad spectrum of media and approaches, demonstrating that Southernness is more of a shared sensibility than a consistent culture. The exhibition includes work dating back to the 1950s, but primarily focuses on art produced within the past 30 years.

Above, Barkley L. Hendricks, Down Home Taste, 1971. Oil and acrylic on linen. Below, Walter Inglis Anderson, Father Mississippi, 1953. Watercolor on paper.

The exhibition also includes a curated music library since no region in the United States has contributed more to American music than the South. This music chronology that speaks to Southern life provides an invaluable counterpoint to the artwork in the exhibition.

Above, Rachel Boillot, 38765 Panther Burn, MS from the series Post Script, 2014. Archival pigment print. Below, Skylar Fein, Black Flag (For Elizabeth’s), 2008. Wood, plaster, and acrylic.

Artists in the exhibit: Terry Adkins, Walter Inglis Anderson, Benny Andrews, Radcliffe Bailey, Romare Bearden, Sanford Biggers, Willie Birch, Rachel Boillot, Douglas Bourgeois, Roger Brown, Beverly Buchanan, Diego Camposeco, Mel Chin, William Christenberry, Sonya Clark, Robert Colescott, William Cordova, Jerstin Crosby and Bill Thelen, Thornton Dial, Sam Durant, William Eggleston, Minnie Jones Evans, Ralph Fasanella, Skylar Fein, Howard Finster, Michael Galinsky, Theaster Gates, Jeffrey Gibson, Deborah Grant, Barkley L. Hendricks, James Herbert and R.E.M., Birney Imes, Jessica Ingram, George Jenne, Deborah Luster, Sally Mann, Kerry James Marshall, Henry Harrison Mayes, Richard Misrach, Jing Niu, Tameka Norris, Catherine Opie, Gordon Parks, Ebony G. Patterson, Fahamu Pecou, Tom Rankin, Dario Robleto, Jim Roche, James “JP” Scott, Amy Sherald, Xaviera Simmons, Mark Steinmetz, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Hank Willis Thomas, Burk Uzzle, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jeff Whetstone.

Southern Accent will travel to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, where it will be on view April 29 – Aug. 20, 2017. 

This exhibition is co-organized by Schoonmaker and Miranda Lash, curator of contemporary art at the Speed Art Museum.