The museum's own page for the South Wing Galleries lists Revelations and Reflections of American Self Taught
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Title: South Wing Gallery exhibitions, 2005
Publisher: Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX
Date: 2005 (archived February 9, 2005)
Original URL: http://museumsw.org/Art/GallerySW.html
Also at: https://web.archive.org/web/20050209230637/http://museumsw.org:80/Art/GallerySW.html
Why it matters: The museum's own page for the South Wing Galleries lists Revelations and Reflections of American Self Taught
Artists, April 7 – May 25, 2005.
Copyright remains with the original publisher. Reproduced for reference and scholarship; contact sesow@sesow.com with any
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SOUTHWING GALLERY - Rotating Exhibits
Collections/Christmas @ the Mansion
November 22 - December 31, 2004
The Museum of the Southwest’s 7th annual holiday celebration of
family and treasured memories will once again feature holiday
decorations throughout each room, designer trees, special lunches,
teas, choirs, gingerbread houses, a Christmas shop, Santa Claus, and
much more. The Southwest Express will honor and celebrate our
collective memories of Midland in days gone by as several model trains
make the rounds on a custom-designed 200 square foot layout. The
littlest museum patrons will be entertained by an elaborate Playmobil
exhibit featuring “Thomas the Train Engine”and optical lighting effects.
Christmas at the Mansion is free to the public but donations are
greatly appreciated.
Light from the Sky: A Tom Lea Retrospective, 1907-2001
January 28 - March 13, 2005
Renowned Texas artist, Tom Lea (1907-2001) packed a lot of art, and a
lot of life, into his ninety-three years as a painter, muralist, illustrator
and author. Except for a body of work done while he was a World War
II correspondent, Lea's oeuvre depicts, in both images and words, the
austere beauty of the American Southwest and its stalwart inhabitants.
Although Lea was a living legend in his native Texas by the time he
reached 50, his fierce artistic independence and his disdain for
personal homage and publicity rendered him largely unknown beyond
his home state.
Revelations and Reflections of American Self Taught
Artists
April 7 – May 25, 2005
Spirituality, a major theme in art for as long as humans have made art,
is given accessible and vibrant expression by American self-taught
artists, who come from all walks of life and from all regions of the
country. Free of the constraints of formal instruction and artistic
affiliation, the "tie that binds" these inspired individuals is an inner drive
to represent heaven and hell, and angels, devils, and demons—the
demons of society and those within their own hearts. Religious themes
and imagery are often found in the work of self-taught artists. For many
of them, religious fervor is what initially impelled them to create. Some
describe their work as a gift from God and try to use it to get their
message out, as if from a pulpit.
The Reverend Howard Finster is undoubtedly America's best-known
self-taught artist, who took up artistic pursuits as a result of a religious
impulse. He began creating religious paintings on found materials at
the age of 60 and produced thousands of works until his death in 2001.
The exhibit also includes works by Howard Finster’s son Michael and
daughter Annie together with works by artists such as: Leroy Almon,
Sr., Johnny Banks, Michael Banks, Eddie Breen, Brian Dowdall, Minnie
Evans, Woodie Long, Frank Pickle, Lorenzo Scott, Annie Tolliver,
Myrtice West and Purvis Young. The exhibit features 66 works.
Contemporary Art From the Collection of the Museum of
the Southwest.
June 10 - August 21, 2005
A survey of selected contemporary works from the collection of the
Museum of the Southwest including the Barrett Collection. The Barrett
Collection is comprised of 15 works by Texas artists in a variety of
media; and was a 2003 gift to the Museum from the Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston. The Barrett collection encompasses representations of
the Texas landscape, figurative works, spiritual and symbolic works,
and examples of and Post-Modernism testifing to the vigor and vitality
of the art of our great state. Among the more established artists
included are Barnaby Fitzgerald, Gail Siptak, James Cobb, and Dee
Wolff.
Sea to Shining Sea
September 15 – October 30, 2005
In the past several years a number of group projects called “Paint
Outs” or “Plein Aire Events”, have emerged as central to the
contemporary American Realist and Impressionist painting movements.
In the wake of the events of September 11, a group of artists decided
to organize an exhibition that would focus upon life in America and
include landscape genre, and figurative painting in either a realist or
impressionist mode. The participating fifty artists would themselves be
a reflection of America, representing various ethnic and racial
backgrounds as well as different regions of the United States. Each
would supply two works—one from one of three planned Plein Aire
sessions (New York’s Hudson River Valley, Ground Zero, Monterey
Peninsula of California, and/or St. Louis, Missouri); the other a studio
work reflecting life in each of the artist’s home communities. The exhibit
features 100 paintings.
