Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection showcases forty-one artists—both native Southerners who recorded their own region and distant places, and others who were transitory visitors or seasonal residents. The result is a varied assortment of individual approaches, and, in the words of the popular American Impressionist Childe Hassam, “some things that are charming.”Many of the painters on viewembraced the central tenets of Impressionism: light-filled natural settings loosely painted in high-key colors with visible brushstrokes; fluidity of form; and an emphasis on atmospheric transience. A “scenic impression” is the evocation of something seen, rather than its literal transcription. In terms of subject matter, it is most frequently a landscape, but it can also extend to a figurative composition set outdoors. The artist’s experience—his or her impression of the scene at hand—is paramount. The earliest paintings in the exhibition date from the 1880s and illustrate a Barbizon-inspired aesthetic consisting of dark tones and simple landscapes. Other works postdate Impressionism and display greater concern for expression and form, along with an awareness of the picture plane. 

Kaye Savage, interested in chemical, physical, and biological interactions across different scales of time and space, in Earth’s surficial environments, presents both place-based, incorporating terrain patterns and natural materials from sites that she explores, and data-based, depicting patterns observed by herself  or by scientists that she meets in the field, as graphic elements. Her pieces engage with locations from the Blue Ridge to the South Carolina coast. 

For Ballance, It has been more than a bit of a stretch to return to her roots as an artist and attempt to create work not based on theatrical text.  However, once she worked with her watercolor guru, and traveled to Morocco and southern Spain to further her MENA studies, she was fortunate to find the inspiration she needed. The Saharan sand of Erg Chebbi and the miraculous decorative tile motifs at the Alhambra and madrasas of Fes provided her the mental freshness and soul touching spark to produce what viewers can find in her works.  

Japanese Art of the Edo and Meiji Eras (1603-1912) displays a variety of cultural expressions of Japan, including tea ceremony implements, woodblock prints, porcelains, and ink paintings.  The Edo Period (1603-1868), named after the Shogun capital, is one of the most prosperous and thriving in the history of Japanese art.  The political stability established by the Tokugawa family prompted an increase in artistic, cultural and social development, with flourishing and distinctive aesthetics represented in paintings, ceramics, woodblock prints and decorative arts.  The Meiji Period (1868-1912), an era of radical social and political change from feudalism to modernity and adopted Western influences, witnessed a blending of cultures and an innovative interchange of old ideas and new in Japanese art.  This exhibition intends to further enhance scholarly research for students in ARTH 322 Art of Japan, and several of the labels in this exhibition will be written by students. Featured works are loaned from the Shiro Kuma Collection of Edwin and Rhena Symmes in Atlanta, GA, from the Edmund Daniel Kinzinger (1888-1963) Collection of Japanese Prints loaned by David and Barbara Goist in Asheville, NC, and from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Hunter Stokes ('60) in Florence, SC.