In my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee there lived a man who became one of the most well known artists in the art world, if not the world-at-large, his name is William Edmondson. Born in 1874 to parents who were once slaves in the American South. Edmondson grew up in the Southern historical context of the racist […]
We explore in this post, the family, friends, education, and art of Thomas Eakins in relationship to his social contexts and highlight key events and paintings. As many readers know, Cedarhurst cares for four paintings by Eakins — Samuel Murray, 1889; Professor Barker, 1886 (and the excised canvas fragment of Barker’s hand turned into a separate painting);
The Life of Thomas Eakins Read More »
Teju Cole is recognized for his interwoven skills of using just the right words to articulate his acute and nuanced observations of today’s visual world. Cole teaches at Harvard University where he is the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing. I admire the recent NYT essay by Cole where he put words to the
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In the 1980s, Howard Finster may have been the most well-known evangelical preacher in America. If you’re not familiar with Howard Finster, you may be surprised to learn that he was considered the second most popular American artist after Andy Warhol. The most important thing to know about Finster’s art is that he considered every one
R.E.M. & Talking Heads Read More »
John Cage is not a household name, though his music influenced Frank Zappa, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Stereolab, the Kronos Quartet and reached well into the visual arts. The occasion for my blog post is the traveling exhibition Rural Avant Garde: The Mountain Lake Experience now showing at Cedarhurst until January 4. If you
Midwestern cultural identity is explored through two of its most widely cherished national figures and the art form, Regionalism, which helped link local community values to an American identity. When Bob Dylan was asked why he left (the Midwest): “There’s no place I feel closer to now, or get the feeling that I’m part of,
The art world can be and is a microcosm of the world-at-large. Peter Schjeldahl wrote recently in The New Yorker, October 19, 2020, a piece titled “Us Cosmopolitans” questioning the postponement of the Philip Guston retrospective. (Written in all caps, the title becomes a telling double entendre.) Schjeldahl, now 78, born Fargo, North Dakota,
Schjeldahl on the Guston Affair Read More »
Mary Lou Parker was a well-known and respected professional artist, poet, newspaper journalist, art teacher, her church’s minister, gospel song-writer, and pianist who made her family’s home in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Ms. Parker married local mortician Joshua Sanders Parker and was the mother to Betty Hawthrone and Roberta Derixson. Parker is remembered today for writing
This week’s blog introduces the interview with Ray Kass and Howard Risatti, co-founders of the Mountain Lake Symposium and Workshop, a Virginia institution from 1980-2017. In this excerpt, Ray Kass characterizes the influence of John Cage on the greater art world.
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Dispelling misconceptions is but one function of Art and maybe this blog. This week we peek into the life and times of Agnes Gund. Lost in the swirl of today’s chaotic world is Gund’s recent and surprising creation of the non-profit organization Art for Justice Fund. Gund created, only in 2017, this non-profit by selling
The Art & Justice of Agnes Gund Read More »
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grounds & gate close daily at 5 pm
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Cedarhurst Center for the Arts
2600 Richview Road
P.O. Box 923
Mount Vernon, IL 62864
(618) 242-1236
mitchellmuseum@cedarhurst.org
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