Imprinting the South

May 24, - August 23, 2008

The works in this exhibition represent a panorama of the South, its social, economic, cultural, and topographical identity. Auburn Collects: Imprinting the South: Works on Paper from the Collection of Lynn Barstis Williams and Stephen J. Goldfarb includes images of southern landmarks, such as mountain and shore, of its more picturesque cities, such as Charleston and New Orleans, as well as commentaries or descriptions of its peoples and its ways of life. Scenes of cotton and tobacco farming, logging, and the steel and iron industry were frequent depictions in prints about the South in the early to mid-twentieth century, the period from which most of these works derive. Religion and recreation were also common subjects, as were the sometimes harrowing, often biting looks at race relations.

A former Auburn University library faculty member, Lynn Williams began collecting these images for her research. Her interest in the genre began at a print fair in Atlanta where she saw a satirical lithograph by George Biddle inspired by the Scottsboro Case. Stephen Goldfarb eventually joined her in an effort to acquire prints exposing both positive and critical views of their home region. One result of their remarkable shared passion is this wide-ranging exhibition, containing nearly 100 woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, serigraphs and other print media, selected from their discoveries. In addition to the image by Biddle that inspired Williams’ quest, the exhibition includes works by Thomas Hart Benton, Elizabeth Catlin, Howard Cook, Robert Gwathmey, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner and many other artists native to the South or drawn to the region by its alluring qualities.

Originating at the Georgia Museum of Art, and augmented with a selection of recent print acquisitions by Williams, this exhibition is presented as a part of JCSM’s continuing series, Auburn Collects, and celebrates the concurrent publication of Williams’ book, Imprinting the South: Southern Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920s-1940s (University of Alabama Press, 2007).