Spelvin Folk Art Collection
The University of Mississippi Museums is pleased to present the George
and Helen Spelvin Folk Art Collection, an entirely fictitious collection
of contemporary "outsider" art. The exhibition will be on view
April 10 – May 31, 2003 in the Lawrence and Fortune Galleries.
Professor
Beauvais Lyons of the University of Tennessee, who poses as the curator
for the Spelvin collection will conduct a gallery tour at a Brown Bag
Luncheon starting at noon on Thursday, April 18. At 7 p.m. that evening
he will present a lecture titled "The Politics of Parody" in
the Speakers Gallery. The museum and its events are free and open to the
public.
Beauvais Lyons is known to many with his creations of archaeological parodies
over the past 20 years. Folk art represents a new direction in his work.
Lyons made all of this faux folk art in varying styles to reflect the
differing attitudes of the imaginary artists. He has gone so far as to
include biographical text panels with black and white photographs depicting
each artist. Regardless of its subject this new work continues his interest
in calling into question the authority of the museum as well as the credibility
of biography. For inattentive viewers, this show may be easily mistaken
for the real thing. For those who look closely, this show offers a provocative
critique of the field of contemporary folk art.
According to the exhibition narrative, "The Spelvin’s bequeathed
their collection to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to serve as
a creative resource for research and teaching." This exhibition presents
the creations of eleven different imaginary artists. Examples include
enamel painted records by Lucas Farley, Arthur Middleton’s painted
portraits of American Presidents, numerous "lumber jack" puppets
by Lester Dowdey, velvet paintings of brides by Charlotte Black, flower
paintings on book pages by Emma Whorley, and some of the best examples
of "mug jugs" by North Carolina potter Rufus Martinez. E. B.
Hazzard's "alien communication device," made of over 300 flattened
tin cans on a modified tent pole structure and Max Pritchard's hand-printed
religious tracts on cereal boxes are also represented in the collection.
The show also includes the inter-racial rag doll friendship chain by Loretta
Howard, whose grandfather was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
This exhibition is on a national tour after having premiered at Carnegie
Mellon University in January and February of 2001.
For more information on the collection, as well as the Hokes
Archives, visit the web site at: web.utk.edu/~blyons.
|
