If you are in or passing through Knoxville in the coming few month’s you may want to avail yourself of the opportunity to view this exhibit. I know I would.
In celebration of the 75th birthday of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
July 20-October 4, 2009–Mountain Splendor: Art and Artists of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1850-1950.
From the time of the Cherokee to the modern tourists, the Great Smoky Mountains have inspired visitors and residents with their majesty and beauty. Artists have long sought to capture this beauty with canvas and camera. In commemoration of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s 75th Anniversary, the Museum of East Tennessee History is mounting the new feature exhibition featuring the work of more than a dozen artists.
The exhibition opens on Monday, July 20, 2009, in the Rogers-Claussen Gallery of the Museum of East Tennessee History and runs through Sunday, October 4, 2009.
A blend of fine and folk art, landscape and genre, the exhibition highlights the work of regional artists, such as Charles C. Krutch and Louis E. Jones, as well as visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains, such as Rudolph Ingerle and Mayna Treanor Avent. Other artists included in the exhibition are Wiley Oakley, Will Henry Stephens, Robert Lindsay Mason, Robert R. VanDeventer, Mary Grainger, and Leon Rene Pescheret, among others.
Of special significance is the earliest known painting of the Smokies, an 1877 work by E.T.H. Foster on loan to the Museum of East Tennessee History from the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia.
Key photographers, such as James E. Thompson, George Masa, and Ansel Adams, are also featured. Thompson and Masa are both credited with playing key roles in the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Spanning the years 1850-1950, the works of art in the exhibition cover the range of artistic expression inspired by the Great Smoky Mountains and were selected by guest curator Steve Cotham. The manager of the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library, Cotham is the author of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as well as an article on the history of “East Tennessee Art and Artists” that appeared in the book Art & Furniture of East Tennessee by Namuni Hale Young.
“Mountain Splendor” is the second installment in the Museum of East Tennessee History’s two-part exhibition series that explores the development of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and celebrates the 75th Anniversary. “Mountain Splendor” also serves as a complement to the museum’s signature exhibition, “Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee,” as both East Tennessee artists and the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are highlighted therein.
“Mountain Splendor” provides visitors to the museum a special opportunity to view this unique grouping of works of art, as this will be the first and only time these works will be assembled together. The Museum of East Tennessee History is located on the first floor of the East Tennessee History Center at 601 S. Gay Street in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The museum is open seven days a week with free admission on Sundays.