Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Souls Grown Deep Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the work of leading contemporary African American artists from the Southeastern United States. Its mission is to include their contributions in the canon of American art history through acquisitions from its collection by major museums, as well as through exhibitions, programs, and publications.[1] The foundation derives its name from a 1921 poem by Langston Hughes (1902–1967) titled "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," the last line of which is "My soul has grown deep like the rivers.[2]

Souls Grown Deep Foundation
AddressAtlanta, Georgia
TypeFoundation
Opened2010
Website
http://soulsgrowndeep.org/

The foundation is led by Maxwell L. Anderson, who serves as its president, and a member of its board of trustees. Anderson was previously director of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.[3]

Collection

The Souls Grown Deep Foundation Collection contains over 1,100 works by more than 160 artists, two-thirds of whom are women. Ranging from large-scale assemblages to works on paper, the foundation is particularly strong in works dating from the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the end of the twentieth century. The roots of these works can be traced to slave cemeteries and secluded woods. Following the Civil War, when the southern agrarian economy collapsed and rural African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers were forced to migrate for survival to major population centers—particularly in and around Birmingham, Alabama, where iron and steel production created jobs—a new and more public language of quilts, funerary, and yard arts arose. Beyond painting, sculpture, assemblage, drawing, and textile-making, this tradition also included music, dance, oral literature, informal theater, culinary arts, and more. Much like jazz musicians, the artists of this tradition reflect the rich, symbolic world of the black rural South through highly charged works that address a wide range of revelatory social and political subjects.[4]

Among the artists represented are Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Mary T. Smith, Joe Minter, Nellie Mae Rowe, Purvis Young, Emmer Sewell, Ronald Lockett, Joe Light, and the quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend.[5]

Origins

Souls Grown Deep Foundation was founded in 2010, but traces its roots to the mid-1980s, when William S. Arnett, an art historian and collector, began to collect the artworks of largely undiscovered African American artists across nine southeastern states. Developed outside of the structure of schools, galleries, and museums, these rich yet largely unknown African American visual art traditions present a distinct post–Civil Rights phenomenon that offers powerful insight and fresh perspectives into the most compelling political and social issues of our time. The majority of the works and ephemeral documents held by the foundation were compiled by Arnett and his sons over three decades, with the goal of creating a collection that could serve as a record and legacy of this culture.[6]

By the mid-1990s Arnett's efforts culminated in an ambitious survey exhibition of this tradition titled Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South, presented in conjunction with the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and in partnership with the City of Atlanta and the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University.[7] The subsequent two-volume publication Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South, remains the most in-depth examination of the movement.[8]

Several exhibitions in recent years have drawn works primarily from the collection today in the care of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, including The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2002, which traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, High Museum of Art, and four other museums;[9] Thornton Dial in the 21st Century at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2006;[10] Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial, organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2011, which traveled to the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, and the High Museum of Art;[11] and Fever Within: The Art of Ronald Lockett, organized by the Ackland Art Museum in 2016, which traveled to the American Folk Art Museum and the High Museum of Art.[12]

Transfer of collection

In 2014 the Souls Grown Deep Foundation began a multi-year program to transfer the majority of works in its care to the permanent collections of leading American and international art museums.[13] To date, this program has led to the acquisition of over 350 works by more than 100 artists from the foundation's collection by 16 museums[14] including The Metropolitan Museum of Art,[15] the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,[16] the High Museum of Art,[17] the New Orleans Museum of Art,[18] the Philadelphia Museum of Art,[19] the Ackland Art Museum,[20] the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,[21] the Brooklyn Museum,[22] The Morgan Library & Museum,[22] the Dallas Museum of Art,[22] the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art,[22] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[22] Clark Atlanta University Art Museum,[14] the Minneapolis Institute of Art,[14] the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts,[14] and The Phillips Collection.[14]

Exhibitions of acquisitions from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation include Revelations: Art from the African American South at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,[23] Cosmologies from the Tree of Life: Art from the African American South at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Souls Grown Deep: Artists from the African American South at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

References
  1. "About Souls Grown Deep Foundation | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  2. aapone (2003-04-10). "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  3. "People | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  4. "About Souls Grown Deep Foundation | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  5. "Artists | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  6. "From the Deep South, an Overlooked Chapter in Art History". Hyperallergic. 2015-01-24. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  7. Applebome, Peter (1995-02-01). "At the Atlanta Games, Culture Will Be a Serious Competitor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  8. Arnett, Paul; Arnett, William S., eds. (September 2000). Souls Grown Deep, Vol. 1: African American Vernacular Art of the South: The Tree Gave the Dove a Leaf. Atlanta, Ga.: Tinwood Books: Tinwood Books. ISBN 9780965376600.
  9. Kimmelman, Michael (2002-11-29). "ART REVIEW; Jazzy Geometry, Cool Quilters". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  10. "Thornton Dial in the 21st Century | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  11. "Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  12. "Fever Within: The Art of Ronald Lockett". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  13. "Souls Grown Deep Foundation Begins Series of Gifts/Purchases by Major National Museums | Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.soulsgrowndeep.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  14. Selvin, Claire (2019-04-29). "Four U.S. Museums Acquire Works from Souls Grown Deep Foundation". ARTnews. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  15. "Souls Grown Deep Foundation Donates 57 Works to Metropolitan Museum of Art | The Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  16. "Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Make Historic Acquisition of 62 Works of African American Art from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation". de Young. 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  17. Chow, Andrew R. (2017-04-25). "High Museum Acquires 54 African-American Artworks". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  18. Twersky, Carolyn (2017-07-06). "New Orleans Museum of Art Acquires 10 Works from Souls Grown Deep Foundation". ARTnews. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  19. "Philadelphia Museum of Art Receives Twenty-Four Artworks from Souls Grown Deep Foundation". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  20. "Ackland Art Museum acquires 12 artworks from Souls Grown Deep Foundation - UNC News". UNC News. 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  21. "The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Acquires 34 Artworks from Souls Grown Deep Foundation - VMFA Press Room". 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  22. Sheets, Hilarie M. (2018-11-12). "Five More Museums Acquire Art From Souls Grown Deep Foundation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
  23. Smith, Roberta (2018-05-24). "At the Met, a Riveting Testament to Those Once Neglected". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
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