Self-Taught Artists Coming Home to U of M June 19-Nov. 13
For release: June 3, 2004
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

The Art Museum of the University of Memphis will host Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South June 19 through Nov. 13.

An opening reception at the museum will be held June 18 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free to the reception and the exhibition.

Coming Home! is the first comprehensive exhibition to explore the impact of evangelical Christianity and the inspiration of the Bible on the work of contemporary Southern folk artists. Biblical themes abound in the works of many famous self-taught artists, including Howard Finster and Sister Gertrude Morgan.

The artworks are considered within the context of the South's artistic and cultural framework. The exhibit provides new ways of understanding the rich meaning, theology, and history of this art, as well as its stylistic approaches and various purposes.

Curated by Dr. Carol Crown, U of M associate professor of art history, the exhibit includes 125 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and textiles drawn from public and private collections across America. Forty-six of the 73 featured painters and sculptors are African-American. In addition to Finster and Morgan, they include William Edmondson, Clementine Hunter, Joe Minter, Elijah Pierce, Robert Roberg, Mary T. Smith, William Thomas Thompson and Myrtice West.

The exhibition is expected to travel to the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts and the Gallery at the American Bible Society in 2005.

For more information, visit the museum's Web site, www.amum.org or call 901-678-2224.

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