There’s an interesting and truly relevant article in the Post & Courier recently…and yes, we realize you have to be a subscriber to get past their paywall. But each of this article hits on topics that DIHS has explored in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
The piece in Sunday’s paper is headlined “Rediscover Alice”. It’s at once a review of a new biography of Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, a key figure in the “Charleston Renaissance” and an exploration of what her art means today. There’s a fascinating conversation with contemporary artist Jonathon Green about how Smith’s century old art is relevant to understanding local history…Black and White.
“Walking the grounds at Middleton Place, Green gestured to the raised stretches of green lawns and the rice fields beyond them, identifying them as the work of Black people.
“Charleston is a Black museum,” he said, noting the work of Black people in creating the city.
For him, Smith’s paintings illustrate that the Black and White narratives of the South are intimately intertwined — or shared, as Todd might put it. Green found it confounding that so many people attempt to separate those stories.
“I just find it difficult if you can’t talk about it,” Green said.”
A Winter Field Still in Stubble,” c. 1935, by Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, from the series A Carolina Rice Plantation. Watercolor on paper, 21 7⁄8 x 16 7⁄8 inches. Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association
To see the entire Post & Courier article CLICK HERE.
Alice Ravenel Huger Smith was the focus of several DIHS presentations, most recently in 2019. CLICK HERE for a recap of Touring The Charleston Renaissance.
Jonathon Green also has a long relationship with DIHS including autographing prints for us to sell. To see a gallery from 2016 , An Evening With Jonathon Green, CLICK HERE and for a blog entry from 2019 when Green joined us for a preview of Osceola’s Muse, CLICK HERE