A Different Mountain: Selected Works from The Arnett Collection
Marlborough is pleased to announce A Different Mountain: Selected Works from the Arnett Collection, an exhibition which will include more than seventy-five paintings, sculptures, works on paper and quilts by important African American artists from the South. The artists in the exhibition share a common patron, William Arnett, the trailblazing collector and founder of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Since the 1980s, Arnett has collected this material extensively and maintained close personal relationships with the artists.
The show, organized for Marlborough by William Arnett鈥檚 sons Paul and Matthew, seeks to provide an in-depth investigation of the artists鈥� intentions, methods, and formal decisions, as well as an exploration of their relationship with each other and their cultural community in the South.
The use of found materials provides a fascinating unifying thread in this exhibition and is cited by the Arnetts as the great sculptural tradition of the black South. The sculptors Lonnie Holley, Hawkins Bolden, and Joe Minter all create their assemblages from everyday objects, utilizing a par of boxing gloves, a tape measure, a basketball hoop, the frame of a settee, and many other common things. Mary T. Smith paints on found corrugated tin and other available supports. Thornton Dial uses a huge range of found objects in both his assemblage paintings and free-standing works, including children鈥檚 toys, clothing, and wire screening. Joe Light and Ronald Lockett both create an embellished surface for their assemblage paintings, using driftwood, carpet, found tin, and other simple materials. The small unfired clay heads of 鈥淪on鈥� Thomas are enlivened with glass eyes, cotton hair, teeth, and jewelry.
The second great visual-art tradition is found in the patchwork quilting practiced by generations of African American women. The show includes remarkable examples of these quilts, which use cast-off or worn out materials to create works of remarkable beauty and power:
Both traditions discovered human, even autobiographical, metaphors in these acts of rescue and transformation. One straightforward example is the 鈥渄enim quilt鈥� or 鈥渂ritches quilt,鈥� pieced from sections of aged jeans, chinos, and other work clothes.
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Marlborough is pleased to announce A Different Mountain: Selected Works from the Arnett Collection, an exhibition which will include more than seventy-five paintings, sculptures, works on paper and quilts by important African American artists from the South. The artists in the exhibition share a common patron, William Arnett, the trailblazing collector and founder of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Since the 1980s, Arnett has collected this material extensively and maintained close personal relationships with the artists.
The show, organized for Marlborough by William Arnett鈥檚 sons Paul and Matthew, seeks to provide an in-depth investigation of the artists鈥� intentions, methods, and formal decisions, as well as an exploration of their relationship with each other and their cultural community in the South.
The use of found materials provides a fascinating unifying thread in this exhibition and is cited by the Arnetts as the great sculptural tradition of the black South. The sculptors Lonnie Holley, Hawkins Bolden, and Joe Minter all create their assemblages from everyday objects, utilizing a par of boxing gloves, a tape measure, a basketball hoop, the frame of a settee, and many other common things. Mary T. Smith paints on found corrugated tin and other available supports. Thornton Dial uses a huge range of found objects in both his assemblage paintings and free-standing works, including children鈥檚 toys, clothing, and wire screening. Joe Light and Ronald Lockett both create an embellished surface for their assemblage paintings, using driftwood, carpet, found tin, and other simple materials. The small unfired clay heads of 鈥淪on鈥� Thomas are enlivened with glass eyes, cotton hair, teeth, and jewelry.
The second great visual-art tradition is found in the patchwork quilting practiced by generations of African American women. The show includes remarkable examples of these quilts, which use cast-off or worn out materials to create works of remarkable beauty and power:
Both traditions discovered human, even autobiographical, metaphors in these acts of rescue and transformation. One straightforward example is the 鈥渄enim quilt鈥� or 鈥渂ritches quilt,鈥� pieced from sections of aged jeans, chinos, and other work clothes.
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