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Plantation Art

Title: Mount Vernon, 1836-1876
Artist: Russell Smith (American 1812-1896)
Permanent Collection & Image Courtesy:
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia.

Landscape of Slavery:
The Plantation in American Art
Morris Museum of Art
August 23 – October 10, 2008

All countries struggle with their past; things done in a different time and a different generation that would be abhorrent now, should not be ignored or forgotten.

The United States of America doesn't escape this truism of development. It has and does struggle with it's history of slavery. To ignore it would be wrong; Charleston, South Carolina's Gibbes Museum of Art organized an exhibition looking at the Landscape of Slavery. Later this month this exhibit will open at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia.

The Plantation Art genre is regional in nature drawn from the Southern United States.

The exhibit looks not only at works created during the time frame but modern works by contemporary artists such as Jonathan Green of Florida.

Jonathan Green

Title: Earth to Earth, 1998
Artist: Jonathan Green (American)
Medium: Oil on Linen
Dimensions: 16” x 20”.
Permanent Collection & Image Courtesy:
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia.

Jonathan Green said of Earth to Earth, "This work was created when I was working on 17 paintings as part of the Potter Dave exhibition on his pottery.

"This particular painting, however, not only reflected some old southern slave traditions, but was an outgrowth of my own Gullah heritage from the inland marshlands off of the sea islands of South Carolina. While my immediate and extended family members were Christians, they still held to some of the African beliefs handed down to them through a couple hundred years. When I was a child it was a common practice at the time of burials to pass a small child over the gravesite so as not to have the spirit of the departed enter the child’s body."

In the painting, Earth to Earth, there is a photograph of the departed at the base of the cross to help others remember the departed. There is a small jar that has a frightening face on it. This was referred to as “The Ugly Jar” which was common during slavery and was made by slaves to let others know that this was there personal jar and not to be shared. The small tea cup is purposely cracked to prevent the spirit of the departed from becoming trapped in the cup."

Title: Cotton Pickers, undated.
Artist: Clementine Hunter (American 1886/7-1988)
Permanent Collection & Image Courtesy:
Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia.

Angela D. Mack, executive director of the Gibbes Museum of Art who organized the exhibition, explains the inspiration for the project, “The mission of the Gibbes is to tell the story of the visual culture of the South, and the plantation has been (and still continues to be) a defining characteristic of the history and present state of the region. The museum’s collection includes several important works related to the subject, and we were inspired to lead an effort to unravel the realities and fictions that surround the subject matter.”

Mack said, “More than a history of the visual imagery related to the plantation, the show invites one to consider the impact that this imagery has had on race relations for three centuries.”

“We are very pleased to have this opportunity to work with our colleagues at the Gibbes Museum—particularly on a project of this quality and scope,” added Kevin Grogan, director of the Morris Museum of Art. “Landscape of Slavery is a critically important examination of the myth of the plantation system, and it will help us to understand the strength, persistence, and peculiar vitality of that myth.”

Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art
Morris Museum of Art:
August 23 – October 19, 2008