Lucy Fine: The Silkscreen Prints
April 19 to June 16, 2013
This exhibition of accomplished silk screen prints by California artist Lucy Fine (1923 – 2011), is drawn from a gift to the museum by her son and daughter in law of the entire suite of her serigraphic works. Lucy began her own personal journey into the world of creating art in her late 30's. She not only pursued, but flourished in many art mediums from watercolor, to serigraphs, sculpture, and mixed media. Her serigraphs distill dynamic relationships, triumphant balances and subtle harmonies as well as deeply satisfying echoes of nature amplified and transformed into new perceptions. In a fundamental sense, since so much of her work dances, her long association with American modern-dance pioneer Benjamin Zemach was undoubtedly an important influence. But most important was her own unique vision with which she created symbolic presentations that have the power to evoke unconscious processes and conscious feelings.
Organized by the Mobile Museum of Art.
The Paternal Suit: Heirlooms from the F. Scott Hess Family Foundation
April 19 - June 23, 2013
Where does personal story end and national history begin? Wherein lies the truth of the stories our fathers tell us, and how does the dishonesty and falseness of familial history impact the moral underpinnings of a society? Los Angeles artist F. Scott Hess explores these questions in this multimedia exhibition of the artist’s paternal ancestry that spans four centuries. The Paternal Suit consists of over 100 paintings, prints, and objects created by Hess, but presented as legitimate historical artifacts, and supported by photographs, documents, and historical ephemera. Each object and artwork bears an artist’s name and detailed provenance and has been executed in the style of the century from which it supposedly originates. Sculpture, ceramics, furniture, toys, newspaper clippings, historic photographs, guns, and costumes advance the story. Hess does not claim authorship for the works on display. Instead, he ascribes to them fictional artists, referring to himself as the Director of the “F. Scott Hess Family Foundation.” The exhibition follows Hessʼs ancestral lineage from 17th century England to the Puritan settlements of South Carolina and Georgia, where family members became key players in the War Between the States (1860–65). Through the prism of his ancestry, Hess examines the impact of false history and deception within each generation and throughout society as a whole, and questions the authority of these perceived “truths.” The ultimate subtext for the installation, which traces the trajectory of the Iverson, Patton, Nolan, and Hess family lines, is the seven-year old artist’s abandonment by his own father after a parental divorce.
The Paternal Suit: Heirlooms from the F. Scott Hess Family Foundation was organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston School of the Arts.
Fabulous Flatware: Non Traditional Tools of the Table
April 19 to June 23,2013
This exhibition of over 750 pieces of flatware demonstrates that good design and imagination can elevate relatively mundane objects like forks, spoons, and knives to an art form. These elegant, sometimes quirky, settings were selected from the collection of Dr. William P. Hood, a longtime collector and expert on Victorian era silver, who in recent years has shifted his collection focus to 20th Century and recent design. Fabulous Flatware traces innovative design from the 19th Century to the present. Dr. Lee A. Gray, the show‘s curator, found selecting what should be shown in the exhibition from Dr. Hoods formidable collection presented the biggest challenge. In the end she chose a core of 330 basic place settings in 110 patterns complemented by novelties and ingenious implements for the table. Dr. Gray points out that "good design is an invisible luxury," often not even noticed but surely able to make our lives much better.
Organized by the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
