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The exhibition “Amen, Amen: Religion and Southern Self-Taught Artists in the Mullis Collection,” which features more than 100 paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics created by self-taught artists from the American South, will open Oct. 4 in Gonzaga University’s Jundt Art Museum and will continue through Jan. 10, 2015.
Organized by the Jundt Art Museum, the exhibition will be on display in both the Jundt Galleries and Arcade Gallery. A free opening reception will be held from 4-9 p.m. Oct. 3 as part of the Fall Visual Arts Tour and “Create Spokane,” October’s month-long celebration of local arts and culture. The reception will incorporate a special performance of music related to themes in “Amen, Amen,” sung by the Gonzaga University Chamber Chorus, directed by Timothy Westerhaus, at 7 p.m. in the Jundt Galleries and amid the exhibition, according to a press release.
“Amen, Amen” offers a survey of selected objects from a single private collection in Atlanta with a focus on images with religious or spiritual subject matter.
The exhibition features objects by Minnie Adkins, Howard Finster, Clementine Hunter, Tim Lewis, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murray, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, and many other important Southern folk artists. “Amen, Amen” will include a large selection of painted angels and devils by Georgia self-taught artist R. A. Miller, a regional celebrity who once decorated his farm with hundreds of whirligigs and other works. The sight of his vibrant property caught the attention of the Athens, Georgia-based rock group R.E.M., which in 1984, along with filmmaker Jim Herbert, chose Miller’s home as the setting for their “Left of Reckoning” music video. The exhibition will also contain several examples of Southern face jugs, ceramics in the form of devils, created by Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina potters.
According to a press release, the exhibition deals with the significant Christian fervor and conviction of many of the artists in the display. The artists’ stories and visions present personally meaningful and often edifying conceptions to give the viewer a sense of God’s plan. Objects with religious themes created by Southerners unschooled in the art world and its academic institutions represent an essential part of our shared American visual heritage. “Amen, Amen” demonstrates these artists’ collective and individual attempts to investigate visually and intellectually the nature of sin and suffering, the conflict of good and evil, and the mysterious workings of the supernatural and the divine in the world.
“Amen, Amen” will be accompanied by a 64-page, full-color exhibition catalogue featuring an essay by Manoguerra, a record of conversations between Manoguerra and the collector, and numerous illustrations and a checklist of the religious and visionary objects in the exhibition. The catalogue will be available at a retail price of $20.
A free public exhibition tour with Manoguerra, director/curator of the Jundt Art Museum, will begin at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Oct. 10. The Jundt Art Museum invites scheduled free staff- or docent-led tours of “Amen, Amen” for school, community, and church groups. For tour information call (509) 313-6613 or email Karen Kaiser, curator of education, at kaiser@gonzaga.edu.
