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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 394 899 SO 026 502 AUTHOR Patterson, To TITLE ASHE: Improvisation & Recycling in African-American Visionary Art. INSTITUTION Winston-Sales State Univ., NC. Diggs Gallery. SPONS AGENCY North Carolina Arts Council, Raleigh. PUB DATE 93 NOTE 41p.; Printed on colored paper with color photographs and may not reproduce well. Funding also received from the James T. Diggs Memorial Fund and the United Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. PUB TYPE Reference Materials Directories/Catalogs (132) Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) EDRS PRICE MF01 /PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Art Education; Arts Centers: *Black Achievement; *Blacks; Reference Materials; Secondary Education; *Visual Arts IDENTIFIERS African Americans ABSTRACT This exhibition guide provides critical analysis, historical perspective, and brief biographies of 15 self-taught African-American artists whose works were displayed. "Ashe," an African word meaning "the power to make things happen," was used as the theme of the exhibition. The guide verbalizes the exhibit's investigation of the methods of making art and the motives of the makers by exploring the choice of materials (recycled objects) and the modes of creation (improvisational). Chapter one is entitled "Sorting Out a Context for Self-taught Art." The critique also examines the works' intellectual lineage traced from African spiritualism. Artists featured in this exhibition are: (1) E. M. Bailey; (2) Hawkins Bolden; (3) T. J. Bowman;(4) Thornton Dial; (5) Thornton Dial, Jr.; (6) Ralph Griffin; (7) Bessie Harvey; (8) Lonnie Holley; (9) Joe Light; (10) Ronald Lockett; (11) Charlie Lucas; (12) Leroy Person; (13) Juanita Rogers; (14) Arthur Spain; and (15) Jimmie Lee Sudduth. 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ASHE: IMPROVISATION & RECYCLING IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN VISIONARY ART romPattetson.Cutator 'ASK 'the power to make things happen' February 2 - March 29, 1993 Diggs Gallery at Winston Salem Stale UnrversitY 601 Martin Luther King Jr Drive Winston - Salem, NC 27.110 (919)750.2458 Front Cover: Lonnie Holley in his outdoor studio. 8irm Alabama-Photo by Roger Manley. Back Cover: Bessie Harvey -Photo by True Kelly Catalogue Design: Jon Over Alms-Galaxy Graphics 'ASHE FESTIVAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13,1993 - 9AM-4PM VIstting Artists: Bessie Harvey Lonnie Holley Charlie Lucas ev 0cy otom co, Visiting Scholars: Judith McWillie Dr. Regenia Perry Dr. Robert Farris7hornpson Major support for this catalogue and exhibition have been provided by a grant from the Exhibitions Program of the North Carolina Arts Council, the United .110.1 I. V Arts Fund Drive of the Ms Counci of iv iv .., ... Winsfon-Saiemand Forsyth County. the 0 Grassroots Arts Program of the North Carohna Arts Council. a state agency. and the James T. Diggs Memorial Fund Copyright OFebtuary T993. Winston- Salem State University--Na part of this book may be reproduced an any form or by any orocess without permission in writing horn the copyright owner Published by the Diggs Gallery at 'A ,v,1 Winston SaiemStale University t./ BEST COPYAVAlLABLi. E.M. Bailey Hawkins Bolden T.I. Bowman Thornton Dial Thornton Dial Jr. Ralph Griffin 13essie Harvey LonnieHolley .JoeLight . Ronald Lockett Charlie Lucas Leroy Person Juanita Rogers Arthur Spa in Jimmie Lee Sudduth Charlie Lucas, Radio Man (cat. no. 40) Photo by Marti Griffin 4 Introduction his exhibit and each work in It embodies power. and interpret his art and the art of his contemporaries, 'Ashethe power to make things happen. No one such as Charlie Lucas, Bessie Harvey, Hawkins Bolden word better speaks for the work in this exhibition or for and Thornton Dial.To quote Lonnie, "You ore the the spirit of the artists. translators, the apostles of this vvork.'is the Job of art first felt the spiritually charged energy of this professionals committed to the visionary field to work In 1989, when Dr. Robert Bishop (1938-1991) took "spread the message' found in this artwork and make me into his office at the Museum of American Folk Art it understandable to off. The spirituality and generous (I was then a graduate student at New York University) humanity in Lonnie's plea-slash-command makesit all to show me a "surprise.' Bob shared with me the slides the more awe-inspiring. of art by newly 'discovered' artists Lonnie HoNey, Located on the campus of a historically black Charlie Lucas and the Dial family. I thinkBob knew that university, Diggs Gallery at WSSV is committed to pro- he was taking me down a piithway of aesthetic dis- .mating and exhibitingartbyAfrican-Americans. 'ASHE: coveries that I would continue to explore, as I do in IMPROVISATION& RECYCUNGINAFRICAN-AMERICAN complete wonder today. VISIONARY ART is one of several exhibitions pcist, ores- Unlike numerous other museum shows focusing ent and future that explore the Afriaanisms in Ameri- on work by self-taught artists, this exhibit investigates can art: this show also kicks off the gallery's curatorial the methods of making and the motives of the makers effortto perlociically show art that celebrates all of the by exploring the choice of materials(the recycled ob- cultures of the African diaspora. feats) and the modes of creation (improvisational).. The visionary/outsider/folk art field has only recently Brooke Anderson, DIrectoi, Diggs Gallery begun to study the aesthetics and intentions of this work and.the artists and to give this art the same kind of scholarlyand critical attention any period of artde- serves. The field of self - taught art is crying out for more. critical analysis and thinking: so, too, are the artists. In a recent phone conversation with Lonnie Holley, he encouraged meand in the same breath ail curatars, arts administrators and writersto actively champion 5 a ow.911 Vailigalli LIN wiminal 4$00.4 oPt-!7 -°%r: -;-Amsan 1.g I Ight, Thank the Lord (cat no.34) Photo by Marti Coffin sASHE: IMPROVISATION & RECYCLING IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN VISIONARY ART by Tom Patterson I. Sorting OutaContext for Self- Taught Art For nearly a century now, the art world paintings, sculptures and constructions made has witnessed a growing fascination with the by these artists; commercial galleries in a work of independently motivated artists whose number of. American cities started sidelining if talent, imagination and inventiveness amply not specializing in "outsider" art; and museums compensate for their lack of formal art training. across the country began hosting exhibitions Until about 20 years ago, interest in this work of work by these uncertified and seemingly was largely confined to the elite inner circles of "naive," low-culture mavericks from the sticks the art world, but that began to change in the and. the backwoods. wake of the socio-political/cultural revolutions The unprecedented attention that has of the 1960s: been devoted to this art in recent years can best Awareness of this phenomenonvari- be understood as a. manifestation of a larger ouSly called art brut, outsider art, contempo- cultural phenomenon or, more accurately, rary folk art, idiosyncratic art, grassroots art several overlapping and intertwined cultural and a host of other namesspread to include phenomena. Among its other legacies, the writers, curators, art dealers and increasing memorable decade of the 1.960s spawned a numbers of mainstream artists. The 1970s saw kind of generational yearning for authenticity, the first major exhibitions of this work and to which these artists and their unpretentious articles about it in popular magazines and work strongly appealed. This art also spoke newspapers, and by the '80s the artists were forcefully to the deep current of .anti-elitism appearing on national TV shows and having that runs through American society, and to a their work mass-produced on the covers of spirit of cultural democracy that has been rock music albums. Thousands of people who growing in this country since the end of World had never collected art started buying the War 11. And its increasing visibility happened S to coincide nicely, too, with other related made by some black Southernersthese and developments in the worlds of "high" art and other equally divers' kinds of art and artifacts popular culture during the late '70s and the are now routinely lumped together under these '80sa renewed interest in bold, figure-based vague, interchangeable banners. artwork; a kind of mini-renaissance in street- To date, the vast majority of exhibits based art forms such as graffiti, hip-hop. and showcasing this art have unquestioningly ac break-dancing! and the populist, do-it-your- cepted this generalized view of it and, as a self spirit of punk-rock and garage rock, to result, have come off as quirky but unfocused name a few of the more obvious examples ofrummage-sale-type affairs. There was a time these trends. when such exhibits played an important.role in Now that we're well into stimulating dialogue and intro- the '90s and some of its novelty ducing the public to a rich vari- has worn off, the art world is in ety of artworks that they weren't the process of reassessing and likely to encounter elsewhere in refining its view of this non-main- the institutional art world. But stream art, struggling with some they've outlived their usefulness of the difficult questions that sur- in that respect. Art audiences round it; and recognizing dis- across the country and around tinctions and common traits the world are by now well aware among the artists and their.works that such works exist.