The Georgia Museum of Art presents Dale Nichols. Transcending Regionalism, an exhibition on view through Feb. 27, 2012.
Midwestern works from the Georgia Museum of Art’s permanent collection and on loan from the collection of Jason Schoen will complement Nichols’ paintings in a small exhibition in the neighboring gallery, “Images of the Midwest from the Collection,” on display for the same dates.
Dale Nichols, Big City News 1935, Oil on canvas, private collection.
Dale Nichols (1904–1995) was raised in David City, the inspiration for many of his regionalist works. Throughout his life he lived in Chicago, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Guatemala, Nevada and Alaska, but he always returned to the agrarian scenery of his childhood. “I think my memory paintings of my home state may be the only creations that I sign with full confidence,” Nichols said.
“Dale Nichols: Transcending Regionalism” features retrospective works highlighting the artist’s career and ability to take Regionalist art above and beyond scenes depicting American life. It demonstrates Nichols’ breadth of subjects but focuses on the midwestern scenes for which he is known.
Several other midwestern paintings by artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood provide historical context and aesthetic balance through their depictions of midwestern scenery in “Images of the Midwest from the Collection.”
Paul Manoguerra, chief curator and curator of American art at GMOA, said, “The artists of that American Scene Regionalist era were very much of that time. Their art one way or another, because of the way they were tied in with the New Deal, really did reflect the 1930s and 1940s. Given our own economic times, maybe there is something to be learned from looking at the art of that era.”
Regionalism was a movement that focused on the singularity of American life and scenery. “[Nichols] was a Regionalist in the strict sense of the definition, but when you begin looking at his art he was very involved in his artistic style and how much abstraction was really in the paintings it transcends that definition of regionalism,” Manoguerra said.
“Dale Nichols: Transcending Regionalism” will be on display in the Virginia and Alfred Kennedy Gallery and will travel to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts March 17 to June 17, 2012. “Images of the Midwest from the Collection” will be on display in the Philip Henry Alston Jr. Gallery. Both exhibitions are sponsored by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art 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. 30602-6719. For more information, including hours, see http://www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706/542-GMOA (4662)