AUGUSTA, GA (PNAN) – Drawn from the permanent collection of the Morris Museum of Art, music and the visual arts have both been shaped by the traditions, values, and attitudes of Southerners, especially in the realms of religion, community life, family relationships, and identity.
The works of art in the exhibition, paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures, that make up this forthcoming exhibition opening of the “Music in the South” on Saturday, December 17, 2022, reflect an array of Southern social and cultural contexts, from Appalachia and the rural Piedmont to New Orleans, the Black Belt of the Deep South, and the Carolina Lowcountry.
These uniquely Southern settings have spawned equally unique musical forms, whereas inspired by music, the visual artist may sense a great truth about how the world works and respond to it. In the way those old hymnbooks use the word, it ‘abides’ and unlike music in its recorded form, lives only in a moment of time.
For many Southern artists, the pursuit of truth is as satisfying as old-time fiddle tunes, blues, gospel, and bluegrass. Unlike art that must be performed, however, visual art can be enjoyed and appreciated independently of its creators.
Musical idioms have passed easily across the region’s racial and cultural boundaries, inspiring unchained multicultural ways of expression. The roots of Southern music and the region’s culture generally come from two sources, European and African expressive traditions.
Like the region’s eating habits and culinary practices, speech, and visual art, Southern music is a product of creolization, a term used by folklorists to describe what happens when distinct cultural traditions converge to create something new. Just as Southern speech and accents differ in various parts of the region, its music also demonstrates the principle of variety within a unity of culture.