Collections Interventions: Mississippi Collegiate Art Faculty Invitational

Collections Interventions:
MISSISSIPPI COLLEGIATE ART FACULTY INVITATIONAL
March 17 – November 1

The latest installation in the Collection Intervention series, which places “guest” objects in our permanent collection galleries, features art professors at colleges and universities across the state of Mississippi. The artists have created new works in response to objects in the Museum’s collection that interest them in terms of the formal qualities, compositional techniques, and subject matter, or to which they share some personal connection. Marcus Michels (University of Southern Mississippi) focused on the color relationships and gestural features of John Henry Twachtman’s Hemlock Pool to create his painting, K. Transitory Spaces: Muscadines & Fragments by Philip R. Jackson (The University of Mississippi), as well the John Peto still life painting that inspired it, turn the seemingly unimportant subject of ripened grapes into a monumental matter through composition and dramatic lighting. Critz Campbell (Mississippi State University) has produced Vardaman Bundren in response to Bo Bartlett’s painting Self Portrait as Asher Lev, as both pieces are inspired by literary characters and rely on geometry and composition to portray metaphor and memory.

Inspired by John Alexander’s Eye of the Storm, Lauren Cardenas (The University of Mississippi) produced Green Curtain, an abstract rendering of kudzu that incorporates the political and naturalistic qualities of Alexander’s work. For Sue Carrie Drummond (Millsaps College) the Museum’s Georgian silver Candelabra symbolizes the historical use of women as vehicles for the exchange of property and wealth between men, and A Dowry depicts a female figure using the design features of the candelabra. Mark Rigsby (University of Southern Mississippi) created Tea Bones, Dangling from a Dark Thread in response to the design and craftsmanship of a set of Georgian silver tea canisters in the Museum’s collection and in contemplation of the dark history and cultural impact of tea as a commodity. In “Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb…”, Phoenix Savage (Tougaloo College) takes her inspiration from Elizabeth Catlett’s Mother and Child, contrasting that celebration of motherhood with her own lament for the vulnerability of the African-American body.

Virginia Rougon Chavis (The University of Mississippi) was drawn to Rosabel Sylestine’s Lidded Sewing Basket because it reminds her of a similar basket that belonged to her grandmother, and her Attentive Repetition speaks to familial and cyclical patterns. Janet Gorzegno (University of Southern Mississippi) honors a work by her valued mentor, Gabor F. Peterdi’s Blue Sun, Red Moon, in her paintings Magician and Madonna that similarly involve layering, found textures, and bold shapes. Inspired by the surface quality and limited color palette of Frightened Figure by her teacher and friend Hiram Williams, Chatham Kemp (William Carey University) created an emotionally rich visual experience for the viewer in her painting Geography. Cetin Oguz (Delta State University) produced Red, Homage to Rauschenberg to capture the fond memory of meeting the artist and to honor how Robert Rauschenberg’s work, such as the Museum’s Untitled print, has continued to influence his creative process.

Each of the artworks created for this exhibition will be hung next to the inspiration piece and will shed new light on the works from our collection. The Museum is thrilled to provide a forum for the creativity of these artists and to showcase the diversity of art being produced by art faculty in Mississippi today.