Facet Summer 2022

Facet Summer 2022

SUMMER 2022

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table of CONTENTS

board of ADVISORS

From the Director p.3

B. Heyward Allen Jr.* Rinne Allen Amalia K. Amaki** June M. Ball Linda N. Beard Karen L. Benson** Richard E. Berkowitz Jeanne L. Berry Sally Bradley

Ibby Mills David Mulkey

Carl. W. Mullis III* Betty R. Myrtle** Gloria B. Norris*** Deborah L. O’Kain Randall S. Ott Sylvia Hillyard Pannell Gordhan L. Patel, immediate past chair Janet W. Patterson Christopher R. Peterson, chair-elect Kathy B. Prescott Margaret A. Rolando* Julie M. Roth Alan F. Rothschild* Jan E. Roush Bert Russo Sarah P. Sams**

Exhibitions p.4

The Art of Giving p.10

Devereux C. Burch* Robert E. Burton** Debra C. Callaway** Lacy Middlebrooks Camp Shannon I. Candler* Faye S. Chambers Wes Cochran Harvey J. Coleman Sharon Cooper James Cunningham Martha Randolph Daura*** Annie Laurie Dodd***

New Acquisitions p.12

Annelies Mondi Retires p.14

The Green Symposium Is Back p.16

D. Jack Sawyer Jr.* Henry C. Schwob** Margaret R. Spalding Dudley R. Stevens Carolyn Tanner**

Museum Notes p.18

Sally Dorsey** Judith A. Ellis Todd Emily

James B. Fleece Phoebe Forio*** Freda Scott Giles John M. Greene** Helen C. Griffith** Judith F. Hernstadt Marion E. Jarrell** Jane Compton Johnson* George-Ann Knox* Shell H. Knox* Andrew Littlejohn D. Hamilton Magill David W. Matheny, chair Mark G. McConnell Marilyn M. McMullan Marilyn D. McNeely

Gifts p.18

Anne Wall Thomas*** Brenda A. Thompson William E. Torres C. Noel Wadsworth* Carol V. Winthrop Gregory Ann Woodruff Ex-Officio Linda C. Chesnut William Underwood Eiland S. Jack Hu Kelly Kerner

Camera Roll p.19

Sarah Peterson Usha Rodrigues

* Lifetime member

** Emeritus member

*** Honorary member

Hours Tuesday and Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Thursday: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday: 1 – 5 p.m. Closed Mondays. Free timed tickets required.

Mission Statement: The Georgia Museum of Art shares the mission of the University of Georgia to support and to promote teaching, research and service. Specifically, as a repository and educational instrument of the visual arts, the museum exists to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret significant works of art. Funds from the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art support exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art. The Georgia Council for the Arts also provides support through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations pro- vide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The museum is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the East Campus of the University of Georgia. The address is 90 Carlton Street, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 30602-1502. For more information, including hours, see http://www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706-542-4662. The University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or military service in its ad- ministrations of educational policies, programs or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the Equal Opportunity Office 119 Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822. https://eoo.uga.edu/.

706.542.4662 Fax: 706.542.1051

Department of Publications Hillary Brown

Design Noelle Shuck

Cover: Kristin Leachman, “Longleaf 1,” 2020. Oil on canvas on panel, 54 × 72 inches. Courtesy of Kristin Leachman.

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from the DIRECTOR

One cannot discount the savagery and brutality of war, especially one being waged upon innocent victims who want peace, security and liberty for their country and for their children. The images we have seen daily of the murder of non-combatants have been sickening and terrifying. Who will forget the diaspora of Ukraine’s mothers, her children, as they seek shelter and safety in neighboring countries, and how often have we heard those children and their mothers express their ardent wishes to go home? As it should be, this war has been a focal point of discussion lately — and shall continue to be so for years to come — by the global museums of the In- ternational Council of Museums’ (ICOM) community. At times, it has almost seemed crass to me, as a member of ICOM-US’s board, that we have worried over the language that condemns the war for its possible and proven destruc- tion of Ukraine’s cultural heritage almost before we condemn the havoc it has rained upon its citizens, who have been killed, dislocated, separated and disheartened. In fact, our first response privileged objects, or seemed to do so, over people, and for that I am sorry. Our second statement, calling out the monstrous atrocities of Russia’s troops and its mercenaries against the civil- ian population, was stronger and more direct in its solidarity with the people of Ukraine as well as in emphasizing our fear that Putin meant to efface or erase the nation’s rich and vibrant history and culture. Museums have already been bombed and set afire; even as I am writing, I am receiving news of the destruction of another provincial museum in Ukraine. To the end of sharing the distress of museum professionals everywhere over the plight of people and museums in Ukraine, I would like to include here part of what I drafted for ICOM-US’s condemnation of the Russian incursion: The past three years have been intense ones for the employees and care- takers of museums around the world. Recently added to the tribulations of COVID, the challenge of facing down racial and social injustice, and this hateful, unnecessary war, we now learn of the stabbing of our colleagues at MoMA and a fire at the Whitney. What affects one of us truly affects us all. For example, our concern for our shared cultural heritage is not just for that of the Americas but for human achievement worldwide. We shiver at the threat of the Russians to destroy or remove to Moscow the magnificent objects and structures of Ukraine’s glorious past. Ukraine, in today’s world, is not so far away. Those of us who abhor what is happening to the people and to their art and history reach across thousands of miles to them. Symptomatic of our concern has been the international acceptance of the Ukrainian national anthem to the extent that so many of us have learned the music without understanding the lyrics. We find if not solace at least comprehension of the horror of war in the words of such poets as Rupert Brooke, in such novels as Edith Wharton’s “A Son at the Front” and, frighteningly, in “Animal Farm” and “1984.” Goya is unrelenting in his depiction of the terror of battle and suffering in his “Disasters of War.” Like - wise difficult but necessary to see is Miriam Beerman’s two-part painting “O the Chimneys,” a visual exegesis on the savagery that humans have inflicted on each other in the 20th century. As Mathew Arnold so eloquently said in his poem “Dover Beach”:

Miriam Beerman (American, b. 1923), “O the Chimneys, Part 1: Shoes,” and “O the Chimneys, Part II: Flames,” 1990. Oil and mixed media on canvas, 71 × 59 inches (each). Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Paula and Jerry Gottesman. GMOA 2016.156.1 – 2.

And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746 – 1828), “Unhappy Mother!,” from “The Disasters of War,” 1808 – 17. Etching, aquatint and drypoint on laid paper, 5 5/16 × 8 inches (image). Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of James B. Anderson. GMOA 1985.11.50.

William Underwood Eiland, Director

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Kristin Leachman: Longleaf Lines

July 23, 2022 – February 5, 2023

In June 2020, artist Kristin Leachman traveled to an old-growth longleaf pine forest in southwest Georgia.

Longleaf forests are one of the most biologically rich ecosystems in the world, second only to tropical rainforests; however, today these forests primarily grow on private lands and are largely unfamiliar to the general public. Through their scale and intimacy, Leachman’s paintings collapse this sense of distance and offer viewers a physically immersive experience. Focused on the longleaf’s bark formations, her works enlarge these patterns into monumentally scaled bio- morphic abstractions. Capturing the tree’s marvelously scaly and fire-resis - tant surface, Leachman’s pictures also appear singed with fire. This effect points to the destructive histories

of these landscapes. Longleaf once spanned 90 million acres across the southern United States but declined to just 3 million acres after centuries of harvesting for ship masts, railroad ties and turpentine farming. These forests would have been cleared entirely for develop- ment had it not been for quail hunting, which became popular in the 1800s. The scorched surfaces of Leach- man’s pictures also correspond with the practice of regular burn cycles that foresters now use to maintain the longleaf ecosystem. As both a ravaging and refining force, fire is a fitting metaphor for the revitalized forests of longleaf pine, which today rise phoenix-like from the ashes.

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“Longleaf Lines” represents part two of Leachman’s “Fifty Forests” project, which she began in 2010 in her adopted home state of California to document the self-organizing patterns in trees. The project is taking Leachman to var- ious forested and deforested sites, protected and unpro- tected lands, in each of the 50 U.S. states. By transcribing the unspoken language of trees’ structural integrity and biological resilience, Leachman explores the intersection of painting and the natural world. “Fifty Forests” also reflects upon the relationship between humans and trees. What is at stake, Leachman’s paintings ask, as our country continually struggles to reconcile its connection to nature with its extractive use of natural resources?

Curator: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, curator of American art

Kristin Leachman, “Longleaf 2,” 2021. Oil on canvas on panel, 54 × 72 inches. Courtesy of Kristin Leachman.

Kristin Leachman, “Longleaf 4,” 2022. Oil on canvas on panel. Courtesy of Kristin Leachman.

Kristin Leachman, “Longleaf 1,” 2020. Oil on canvas on panel, 54 × 72 inches. Courtesy of Kristin Leachman.

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exhibitions

Infinity on the Horizon September 3 – December 31, 2022

Speaking about the landscape of the American Southwest, Georgia O’Keeffe once remarked, “The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big far beyond my understanding – to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill.”

landscape painting from the late 1960s to the present. Featured artists like O’Keeffe, Elaine de Kooning and Richard Mayhew foreground modernist and abstract expressionist approaches to the natural environment through vibrant colors and manipulated planes of space. Meanwhile, contemporary artists such as Jenni- fer Sirey and Matthew Brandt use new mediums and techniques to challenge artistic traditions and renderings of the landscape. Moving across various themes, the exhibition highlights how artists extrapolate identifiable elements and visual markers of landscapes to comment on political, social and ecological issues happening within and to the environments around us.

This exhibition, inspired by O’Keeffe’s phrase, highlights modern and contemporary objects in the Georgia Museum of Art’s permanent collection by prominent and lesser-known artists. The notion of “Infinity on the Horizon” sparks a dia - logue about the use of abstraction to expand our understand- ings of the landscapes around us. In traditional depictions of a landscape, the motif of a horizontal line demarcates the separation of land, water and the sky — in other words, the separation of the land beneath us and the expansive “other.” By examining the infinite approaches of abstraction, this exhibition begs the question: how far can the artist abstract nature before we lose sight of the horizon? Examining this intersection of abstraction and landscape, artists with work in the exhibition build on histories of

Curator: Kathryn Hill, curatorial assistant in contemporary art

Matthew Brandt (American, b. 1982), “Gibbons Lake WY 4,” 2013. C-print soaked in Gibbons Lake water, 72 x 105 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The John and Sara Shlesinger Collection. GMOA 2019.367.

Coco Schoenberg (American, b. France, 1939), basket-form vessel, ca. 1995. Ceramic. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of Paul W. Richelson. GMOA 2018.295.

Decade of Tradition: Highlights from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection June 11, 2022 – July 3, 2023

In 2012, Larry and Brenda Thompson gave 100 works of art by African American artists to the Georgia Museum of Art, mirroring the original donation of 100 American paintings by museum founder Alfred Heber Holbrook.

In addition, they endowed a curatorial position to steward this collection to help fulfill the museum’s vision of an inclusive canon of American art. This exhibition is part of a permanent installation of work donated by the Thompsons. It includes works from the 2011 traveling exhibition “Tradition Redefined,” which preceded the gift, as well as subsequent works added in recent years that have not been on view in other galleries. These works celebrate the expansion of the museum’s permanent collection through this trans- formative gift of works by African American artists.

Curator: Shawnya L. Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art

Vertis Hayes (American, 1911 – 2000), “Juke Joint,” 1946. Oil on canvas, 28 × 36 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2012.126. Joseph Delaney (American, 1904 – 1991),“Woman in Striped Dress,” 1964. Oil on board, 36 × 27 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2011.585.

David Clyde Driskell (American, 1931 – 2020), “Masks,” 1988. Tempera and encaustic on paper, 19 × 25 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2012.121.

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exhibitions

Call and Response Through August 7, 2022

Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects Through August 7, 2022

Organized by the Louisiana State University Museum of Art and curated by Courtney Taylor, “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects” includes recent photographic and video works by the renowned artist questioning stereotypes that associate Black bodies with criminality.

Images from Weems’ series “All the Boys” and “The Usual Suspects” implicate these stereotypes in the deaths of Black men and women at the hands of police and confront the viewer with the fact of judicial inaction. Blocks of color obscuring faces point to the constructed nature of our notions of race and how these imagined concepts obscure humanity — here with very real and deadly outcomes. “People of a Darker Hue,” a meditative compilation of video, found footage, narration and performance, commemorates these deaths. Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relation- ships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the pic- ture — both literally and metaphorically — she has sustained an ongoing dialogue within contemporary discourse for over 30 years. During this time Weems has developed a complex body of art employing photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation and video.

As a visual response to “Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects,” this selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection considers the intersection of race and representation in the works of other African American artists.

Some works invite the viewer to interrogate myths and ste- reotypes about Black identity while others acknowledge other narratives about personal and collective aspects of power. Included are works by Sheila Pree Bright, Elizabeth Catlett, Michael Ray Charles and Kevin Cole.

Curator: Shawnya L. Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art

In-house Curator: Shawnya L. Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art

Sheila Pree Bright (American, b. 1967), “Donovan,” from the “Young American Series,” 2007. Chromogenic print, 39 1/2 × 29 1/2 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of the Larry D. and Brenda A Thompson Collection of African American Art. GMOA 2016.123.

Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953), “All the Boys (Blocked 3),” 2016. Archival pigment and silkscreened panel mounted on gesso board, 32 3/8 × 27 3/8 inches (each). Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery.

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Graphic Eloquence: American Modernism on Paper from the Collection of Michael T. Ricker Through September 4, 2022

Jane Manus, Undaunted August 20, 2022 — February 12, 2023

American modernism in the visual arts has garnered sustained interest among scholars and general audiences in recent years, though typically with a focus on modernist painting.

Jane Manus has been making bold abstract sculptural statements throughout an extraordinarily productive five-decade career.

This exhibition seeks to expand that narrow emphasis, high- lighting an array of techniques and a range of artists who ex- plored modernism’s myriad forms through paper-based media. “Graphic Eloquence” consists of approximately 150 works by 70 artists selected from a single private collection, many of which are promised gifts to the museum. Artists working in modernist modes shared challenges regardless of loca- tion, and the exhibition brings out these commonalities as it focuses on regional centers that embraced and supported modernist trends. Many of the works in the exhibition employ lesser-known artistic media, from casein and cellocut to pas- tel and pochoir. Unlike more exclusive accounts of modernist painting, the story of modernist works on paper provides a broader, more democratic view of American modernism that highlights the contributions of many lesser-known artists to this important 20th-century history. A substantial catalogue published by the museum accompanies the exhibition and is available in the Museum Shop.

This exhibition consists of five of her sculptures, ranging in height from 6 feet to 24 feet, all made of welded aluminum and on display in the Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden. Manus’ vocabulary is reminiscent of geometric sculptors such as Mark di Suvero, Tony Smith, and Joel Shapiro, but her interpretations feel lighter on their feet. Her work was on display at the Georgia Museum of Art in 1996 as part of the celebrations surrounding the opening of the University of Georgia’s Performing and Visual Arts Complex, and her wall sculpture greets visitors to the museum, but these works are all more recent. A selection of maquettes shows the artist’s process and enables the viewer to grasp the entirety of her work in a way that can be difficult at full scale.

Curator: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, curator of American art

Curators: Annelies Mondi, deputy director, and William U. Eiland, director

Werner Drewes (American, b. Germany, 1899 – 1985), “Black Curve on Yellow Horizontally Connected,” 1938. Color woodcut, ed. 2/1-XX, 5 3/4 × 8 inches. Promised gift of Michael T. Ricker. Permission of Karen E.D. Seibert of the Werner Drewes Estate, DrewesFineArt.com.

Jane Manus, “Bravo,” 2015. Welded and painted aluminum, 72 × 48 × 24 inches. Collection of the artist.

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the art of giving BLACK HISTORY AWARDS CELEBRATION RETURNS

early 1990s, Georgia State University in Atlanta recruited her as professor of African anthropology and founding director of African American Student Services and Programs, thereby sup- porting the retention, progression and graduation of hundreds of multicultural students. Sadly, Dr. Derby died the week of the awards ceremony, and Lois A. Richardson, president of the Atlanta (GA) Chapter of the Links, accepted it on her behalf, talking about the many people with whom Dr. Derby would have wanted to share the award, including her husband, Bob Banks, whose “love and support allowed her to soar to unimaginable heights.” Shawnya Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art, then present- ed the 2022 Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award to Lou Stovall, preceded by a short video on his career that she created with Nathan Fleeson, a UGA religion doctoral student and her curatorial intern. She also thanked Stovall and his family for donating works of art to the museum’s collection. The Thompson Award honors African American artists who have made significant but often lesser-known contributions to the visual arts tradition and have roots in or major connec- tions to the state of Georgia. Stovall, a nationally renowned printmaker, was born in Athens, Georgia, although he grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and had not visited his birth - place in decades. He graduated from Howard University and, in 1968, opened a printmaking studio, the Workshop, Inc., where he innovated techniques in silkscreen printing. The thriving studio, which still exists, became the site for Stovall’s work for community poster printmaking and, later, collaborative projects with artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Josef Albers and Sam Gilliam. His work was on view in the exhibition “Lou Stovall: Of Land and Origins,” which attendees were able to experience in the museum’s galleries. Stovall talked about his many collaborations over the years and read some of his poetry, including “The Greening of the Art- ist,” which includes the lines “The ability to make something possible / is perhaps the greatest gift of all.” Brenda Thompson then spoke about the importance of printmaking to her and her husband’s collection and how Stovall’s prints resemble paintings. Deputy director Annelies Mondi then concluded the ceremonies, stepping in for director William U. Eiland, whose flight was delayed. She emphasized that the proceeds from the evening, which totaled more than $19,000, benefit the muse - um’s Endowment for the Study of African American Art, Artists and History and discussed the importance of creativity and learning and how the museum is a crucial part of the universi- ty’s overall mission. We thank all who contributed or attended and look forward to next year’s event.

Larry and Brenda Thompson with University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead.

After a year off in 2021, we were so delighted to return to our annual Black History Awards Celebration. Held April 1 at the museum, the event was limited to sponsors but filmed for those who were unable to attend.

University of Georgia president Jere Morehead welcomed ev- eryone to the ceremony, thanking Larry and Brenda Thompson in particular for their support of African American art at the university and the museum. Event chair Freda Scott Giles then led the audience in the first verse of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Shanna Jackson Sheats, president of the Athens (GA) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, announced that the recipient of the 2022 Lillian C. Lynch Citation was Dr. Doris Derby. This award honors an African American leader who has made a signifi - cant contribution to black cultural education and service and is named in honor of a charter member of the Athens (GA) Chapter of the Links. Dr. Derby was born in New York City, where she painted and studied dance. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and began teaching elementary school in New York. In the spring of 1963, she joined her fellow Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) members in organizing and participating in the 1963 March on Washington for jobs and freedom. She worked as a SNCC Field Secretary and educator in Mississippi, helped develop an adult literacy program at Tou- galoo College and participated in Black voter registration drives. She also co-founded the Free Southern Theater and developed her photography and documentary filmmaking skills. In the

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sponsors

$10,000 – PRESENTING SPONSOR Anonymous

$5,000 Lacy Middlebrooks Camp & Tom Camp

$2,500 Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley, P.C. Kathy B. Prescott & H. Grady Thrasher III $1,000 Lucy & Buddy Allen Jr. Mae & Louis A. Castenell Jr. Janet & Alex Patterson Shanell L. McGoy & Terry M. Powers Jr. Roman Arts Consulting, LLC Kendell & Tony Turner UGA Office of the President UGA School of Law

$500 Anonymous The Athens (GA) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated Sige Burden Jr. Teresa & Charlie Friedlander Freda Scott Giles Mary and Jeffrey Goodwin Bree & Richard Hayes Lillian Kincey & Steve C. Jones Brenda & Ham Magill Jacki Macker & Cash Morris Libby & Van Morris Sherrie & Stephen Olejnik Sylvia Hilliard Pannell & Clifton W. Pannell Monica & Sylvester Parker Jinx & Gordhan Patel Sarah & Chris Peterson Deborah Gonzalez & Robert A. Scott Shenara & Alonzo Sexton Mary Lillie Watson & Ray Watson

event partners

cutlines

The Athens Printing Company Barrons Rental Center Guide2Athens Perryander Studio

committee

Lacy Middlebrooks Camp Deborah Gonzalez Jeffrey Goodwin Bree Hayes Sage Kincaid

Freda Scott Giles, chair Monica W. Parker, Links liaison

(top to bottom) Members of the Links, Incorporated.

Shanell McGoy Sarah Peterson Shenara Sexton

Lou Stovall (center, seated) with Larry Thompson, Kevin Cole, Bob Banks, Brenda Thompson, Shawnya Harris, Annelies Mondi and Jere Morehead. Lou Stovall (center, seated) with his family.

Ligia Alexander Linda Bigelow Sige Burden Jr.

ACQUISITIONS

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KYRA MARKHAM

Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee [Creek], b. 1957), “Emigrant Indians #1,” 2018. Five-color screenprint on Crane Lettra paper, 20 × 20 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase. GMOA 2021.260. idealized Black female figures, with elongated bodies, dark brown skin and masklike faces, are at once a celebration of African culture and a comment on its enduring presence. He would repeat these themes throughout his career. This late aquatint represents one example in a series of erotic scenes that echo the Turkish bath scenes and opulent interiors found in “odalisque” paint- ings of 19th-century European art. ELDZIER CORTOR e ldzier Cortor was a Chicago-based painter and master printmaker. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and, during the 1930s, worked as an easel painter for the Works Progress Administration. He later helped establish Chicago’s Southside Communi- ty Art Center. Cortor is best remembered for his idyllic depictions of Black women inspired by his study of the Gullah community inhabiting the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. He received two fellowships during the 1940s to travel visit these areas and paint inhabitants of the islands whose culture closely mirrored customs found in West Africa. Cortor was particularly enamored with capturing the female figure and once stated: “the Black woman represents the Black race.” His

b orn Elaine Hyman, the artist Kyra Markham trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and, upon completing her studies in 1909, pursued a parallel career in theater and film, perform - ing in Hollywood movies, with the Chicago Little Theatre and later as part of the Provincetown Players. By the 1930s, Markham’s work as a printmaker and muralist gained momentum, and she exhibited litho- graphs in the social realist style to great critical and commercial ac- claim. Like her murals and later wartime paintings, these prints feature dynamic figural groupings and dramatic lighting that resonate with her theatrical background and convey the fanciful and grotesque aspects of Depression-era and wartime society. In 1946, Markham moved with her husband, the stage designer David Gaither, to a farm in Halifax, Vermont. Unlike the boosterism and pa- triotism of her works during World War II, “Winter Landscape” conveys a much more somber, quieter mood. The painting recalls her other pictures of the wintry landscape, barn buildings and gnarled trees that surrounded her Vermont home. Rather than a merely bucolic New En- gland scene under a bed of snow, “Winter Landscape” conveys a hazy dreamlike space, glowing in sunlight filtered through downy clouds. The twisting and towering tree, with blasted and barren limbs, appears glaringly backlit and dramatically cropped. Yet its wounded body still vibrates with life, standing like a lone sentinel in the bleak winter of the nuclear age.

Shawnya L. Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art

Eldzier Cortor (American, 1916 – 2015), “Sepia Odalisque I,” 1998. Aquatint on paper, 19 3/4 × 13 3/4 inches (image). Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase with funds provided by bequest of Paul W. Richelson. GMOA 2022.6.

Kyra Markham (American, 1891 – 1967), “Winter Landscape,” 1947. Oil on panel, 23 3/8 × 17 1/4 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of James Woods and sons, Bath, Ohio. GMOA 2021.147.

Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, curator of American art

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beloved Deputy Director Annelies Mondi retires AFTER DECADES OF SERVICE

Annelies Mondi says that, in some ways, she came in the back door of the Georgia Museum of Art, but after 34+ years of service she’s made an undeniable impact.

She retired at the end of May after working in many different departments at the museum and with countless people across campus. Mondi, who has been our deputy director since 2004, first got involved with the museum when a friend suggested that she look into the docent program after she graduated from the Uni- versity of Georgia in 1984, with a degree in art history. Working to pay off her student loans, she cobbled together employment in the way that many 20-somethings who’ve fallen in love with Athens do. She worked as a commercial screen printer, in a frame shop, bussing tables at T-Bone’s Texas-Style Steakhouse on Baxter Street, selling books at Jackson Street Books and even painting the windshields of cars at dealerships with phrases like “4 x 4 Thunder Truck.” “What’s a docent?” Mondi asked, a question she’s probably an- swered a thousand times since then, but that connection turned out to be the beginning of a lifetime in the museum field. After talking to then-curator Donald Keyes, she agreed to help him conduct research on the itinerant 19th-century painter George Cooke, a project that became an award-winning exhibition in 1991. From there, she took a temporary part-time job in the museum’s education department, working on the School Art Symposium, a statewide competition for high school students. In 1988, interim director Carol Winthrop hired Mondi as a part-time preparator, working for Bruce Bowman to install exhibitions and move art, and her first full-time position at the

museum came a little later, as an assistant registrar to Martha Blakeslee. The museum had moved to a then-state-of-the- art DOS-based electronic >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22

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