RICHMOND, VA (PNAN) – On view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts through March 19, 2023, “Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art” is the first exhibition to explore the instrument’s symbolism in American art from the early 19th century to the present day. Featuring 125 works of art, as well as 35 musical instruments, the exhibition demonstrates that guitars figure prominently in the visual stories Americans tell themselves about themselves, their histories, identities, and aspirations.
The works in Storied Strings are divided into nine sections: Aestheticizing a Motif; Cold Hard Cash; Hispanicization; Parlor Games; Personification; Picturing Performance; Political Guitars; Guitar in Black Art and Culture; Re-Gendered Instruments. The exhibition also features smaller thematically arranged niche spaces, including The Blues; Women in Early Country Music; Visual Culture of Early Rock and Roll; Hawaii-ana; and Cowboy Guitars.
The guitar is portable, affordable, and ubiquitous which appears in American art more than any other instrument, and this exhibition explores those depictions as well as the human ambitions, intentions, and connections facilitated by the instrument which is a powerful tool and elastic emblem.
Explore the guitar as visual subject, enduring symbol, and storyteller’s companion in person at VMA as well as this Exhibition Trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0THB-gkj9-4. Note: Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art will travel to Nashville where it will be on view at the Frist Art Museum, May 26–August 13, 2023.