Tennessee Art History (original) (raw)

Tennessee Art History

with an emphasis on representational art

Introduction

This section of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "Tennessee Art History." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in TFAO's Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to the articles and essays.

Following the links to _Resource Library_articles and essays are a listing of museums in the state which have provided materials to Resource Library for this or any other topic.

Listed after museums are links to _online_resources outside the TFAO website. Following these resources is information about offline resources including DVDs, paper-printed books, journals and articles. Our goal is to present complete knowledge relating to this section of Topics in American Art.

We recommend that researchers always search within Resource Library for additional material. Please see TFAO's pageHow to research topics not listed for more information.

(above: William Gilbert Gaul, Van Buren, Tennessee, c. 1881, oil on canvas, 29.6 x 44 inches, The Johnson Collection. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

Resource Libraryessays listed by author name in alphabetical order, followed by articles:

A Century of Progress: 20th Century Painting in Tennessee, by Celia Walker

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 50th Anniversary Traveling Collection Exhibition

Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee

(above: Gilbert Gaul (1855 - 1919), Van Buren County, Tennessee, 1879, oil on canvas, 25.5 i x: 34.2 in, Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Museums and other non-profit sources of Resource Library articles and essays:

Cheekwood Museum of Art

Dixon Gallery and Gardens

(above The Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Photo: © John Hazeltine, 2012. Onsite photography permission by Julie Pierotti, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens)

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Hunter Museum of American Art

Knoxville Museum of Art

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

(above: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Photo: © 2012, John Hazeltine)

National Civil Rights Museum

Parthenon

Tennessee State Museum

Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery

Other online information:

(above: Catherine Wiley (1879-1958),Lady with Parasol, 1915, The Johnson Collection. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

"Art," by James C. Kelly in Encyclopedia of History and Culture, from Tennessee Historical Society. Accessed August, 2015.

Artists from Tennessee in Wikipedia. Accessed August, 2015.

Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door is a 2020 exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art which says: "This exhibition of 50+ paintings, works on paper, and unpublished archival material examines the 38-year relationship between painter Beauford Delaney (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris) and writer James Baldwin (New York 1924-1987 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France) and the ways their ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another's creative output and worldview." Accessed 11/20

Brief Biography of Tennessee artists in the Dec. 6th, 2008 auction, from Case Antiques. Accessed August, 2015.

Categories page in _Encyclopedia of History and Culture_from Tennessee Historical Society . Accessed August, 2015.

Gathering Light: Works by Beauford Delaney from the KMA Collection is a 2017 exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art which says: "Gathering Light celebrates the Knoxville Museum of Art's progress in building a representative collection of works by Knoxville-born Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), considered by many to be among the greatest American abstract painters of the twentieth century. Despite battling poverty, prejudice, and mental illness, Delaney achieved an international reputation for his portraits, scenes of city life, and free-form abstractions marked by intense colors, bold contours, and expressive surfaces." Accessed 6/17

Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee is an ongoing exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art which says: "Higher Ground is the first permanent exhibition devoted to East Tennessee's artistic achievements. It includes objects from the KMA collection supplemented by important works borrowed from public and private collections. Many of the featured artists spent their entire lives and careers in the area, while some moved away to follow their creative ambitions. Others were drawn to the region by its natural beauty, as the wealth of landscape imagery in this exhibition attests." Accessed 6/17

Honoring Nature Early Southern Appalachian Landscape Painting is a 2024 exhibit at the Ashville Art Museum which says: "This exhibition explores the sublime natural landscapes of the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina and Tennessee. While there were several regional schools of painting around this time, this group is largely from the Midwest and many of the artists trained at the Art Institute of Chicago or in New York City." Accessed 6/24

Shades of Gray and Blue: Reflections of Life in Civil War Tennessee is an educational website launched in 2011. It is sponsored by Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area in partnership with Vanderbilt University Libraries, Middle Tennessee State University's Walker Library, and the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University. Marilyn Masler Associate Registrar, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, is a consultant and contributing author. The website contains elements relating to the visual arts in Civil War Tennessee. For example, see The Persistence of Memory: Commemorative Works of Art. Accessed August, 2015.

Tennessee (sampling of artists and works connected to state) from askArt. Accessed August, 2015.

(above: Lloyd Branson (1853-1925), Portrait of Knoxville socialite and preservationist Ellen McClung Berry (1894-1992), 1920, oil on canvas, Knoxville Museum of Art. Gift of Dr. Aubra Branson. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Tennessee Portrait Project, a website sponsored by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee, contains many historic portraits. An artist index is included. Accessed August, 2015.

_Steve Cotham on East Tennessee Artists_is a lecture (53:50) at the Knoxville Museum of Art, released April 6, 2011. The museum says "Steve Cotham is the manager of the McClung Historical Collection located in the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville. Cotham holds three academic degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, including advanced degrees in history and library science." Another video titled Steve Cotham: Dine and Discover (31:10) was released November 13, 2008 in connection with the exhibition Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee, which is according to the museum "... a new permanent installation celebrating the art and artists of Knoxville and the surrounding region. The fascinating and complex story of our area's rich artistic heritage and its connections to the larger currents of American art are largely unknown, and certainly under appreciated...the first permanent installation devoted to the creative achievements of important artists active since the late 19th century whose lives and legacies are closely linked to East Tennessee." [Link found to be expired as of 2015 audit. TFAO is saving the citation for use by researchers.]

Other videos are available on the Knoxville Museum of Art website page for podcasts and videos. Examples are:

The Life And Art Of Anna Catherine Wiley, by Steve Cotham [36:51] May 22, 2013;

Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee, by Patricia Rutenberg. KMA says: "...Rutenberg's talk offers an in-depth look at Catherine Wiley, one of East Tennessee's most talented painters." September 7, 2011 [38:14];

Paint Brush for Hire: The East Tennessee Odyssey of James and Emma Cameron, 1856-1862, by UT Emeritus Professor Fred Moffatt. [50:24] October 5, 2011.

Accessed August, 2015.

(above: Gilbert Gaul (1855 - 1919),His First Smoke, 1878, oil on canvas, 25.5 i x: 34.2 in. High Museum of Art. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Books, listed by year of publication, with most recently published book listed first:

A History of Tennessee Arts: Creating Traditions, Expanding Horizons, West, Carroll Van, and Margaret Duncan Binnicker, eds. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004) See "Painting in 19th-Century Tennessee," pp. 79-98 contributed by Marilyn Masler Associate Registrar, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Art of Tennessee., Caldwell, Benjamin H., Jr., Robert Hicks, and Mark W. Scala, comps. Nashville: Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2003.

Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1998), Carroll Van West, editor.

_Art & Furniture of East Tennessee: The Inaugural Exhibit of the Museum of East Tennessee History,_by Namuni Hale.Young, Published by East Tennessee Historical Society, 1997. ISBN 0941199118, 9780941199117. 121 pages.

An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee, Jim Stokely and Jeff D. Johnson, eds. (Oak Ridge: Childrens Museum, 1981). See "The Fine Arts."

Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee, ed. Lucile Deaderick, (Knoxville: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976). See Frederick C. Moffatt: "Painting, Sculpture, and Photography," pp. 424-38.

The Arts of East Tennessee in the Nineteenth Century, by Dulin Gallery of Art, Knoxville, East Tennessee Historical Society, 1971, 36 pages.

Portraits in Tennessee Painted Before 1866, by National Society of the Colonial Dames of America Tennessee, Eleanor Fleming Morrissey, Portrait Committee, National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Tennessee. (National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee, 1964) 147 pages.

Tennessee Painting -- the Past, by Tennessee Fine Arts Center. Published by Tennessee Fine Arts Center, 1960. 20 pages. Google Books says: "Catalog of an exhibition held May 22-July 31, 1960, at the Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville."

(above: Catherine Wiley (1879-1958),Self-portrait, 1910s. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Articles:

Cogswell, Robert "A Selected Bibliography of Tennessee Folk Arts". Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 1984 vol.50 (4): 142-45.

Kelly, James C. "Landscape and Genre Painting in Tennessee, 1810-1985," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 44 (1985): 7-152

Kelly, James C. "Portrait Painting in Tennessee,"Tennessee Historical Quarterly 46 (1987): 193-276

Masler, Marilyn "Art and Artists in Antebellum Memphis,"Tennessee Historical Quarterly (Winter 1998) p. 218-235.

Young, Namuni Hale "Art and Furniture of East Tennessee"Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Winter 1987

"A Tale of Two Monuments: Civil War Sculpture in Knoxville,"East Tennessee Historical Society Publications 50 (1978)

Return to Individual States Art History Project

TFAO wishes to extend appreciation to Marilyn Masler Associate Registrar, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art,; Ellen Simak, Chief Curator, Hunter Museum of American Art, and Stephen C. Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator, Knoxville Museum of Art for suggestions of materials for this page.

Do you know of additional sources whether online or paper-printed? TFAO welcomes your suggestions. Please send them to:

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