| |
Posted Sep 9, 2010, 7:57 AM
|
 |
Jubilee on the Bay !!
|
|
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Mobile
Posts: 1,077
|
|
|
Museum shows elegance of old Mobile.
Quote:
MOBILE, Ala . — An undeniable romanticism suffuses the artwork of Marian Acker Macpherson, whose etchings depict a Mobile that can be seen only through the mists of time
0
0
0
Share “She was able to give a romantic feel for the buildings, although some of them were falling down when she sketched them,” says Stephen J. Goldfarb, guest curator for “Marian Acker Macpherson: Etcher of Old Mobile,” ongoing through Sept. 26 at the Mobile Museum of Art in Langan Park.
“She wanted to alert people of her station to these old buildings and the need to protect them,” Goldfarb says by long distance from Atlanta. “They were slipping away and falling down.”
Born into an established Mobile family, Macpherson (1906-93) lived her life in the Gulf Coast city except for the years she spent attending art school in the 1920s. Her art training began at Barton Academy, from which she graduated in 1923. Later in the 1920s she sought professional training at the Vesper George Art School in Boston.
She described the experience for an interviewer: “It was no joke. It was hard. I came to the reality that those other kids were smart. ... This was a general art school where we did layouts, still-life, etching, tin-can labels and a small amount of fashion illustration. I think they took me because they never heard of Mobile and wanted to find out about this part of the country.”
When she returned to Mobile after three years, she realized that the historic buildings — what she described as “Old Mobile” — were disappearing. She undertook to record in etchings many of those structures.
Her work resulted in two books: “Prints of the Past of Old Mobile” (1932) and “Etchings of Old Mobile” (1938). After World War II, she continued her interest with the publication of her guidebook “Glimpses of Old Mobile” (six known editions, 1946-83), which include the main reproductions of her ink drawings.
As noted in the catalog: “In the 1880s artists rediscovered etching as a medium of artistic expression. Earlier, prints had been an important part of the artistic production of Rembrandt and other European masters.
“In the late 19th century, many American artists flocked to European cities to sketch picturesque views of old world architecture, which they transferred to the etching plate.
“The next generation of American etchers turned their attention to domestic subjects, and during the 1920s many artists discovered the charm of the historic Southeastern coastal cities of New Orleans and Charleston.”
This exhibit of Acker Macpherson’s work includes her depictions of many Mobile and Eastern Shore landmarks, including All Saints Church, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Barton Academy, Bernheimer House, the Portier House, Christ Church, Colliers House, Conception and Conti streets, Spring Hill (now St. Joseph) Chapel and many more.
In her later years, Acker Macpherson turned to painting, executing scores of small watercolors of Mobile and environs, as well as Mardi Gras scrolls and illustrated maps of Mobile, Mobile Bay and Gulf Shores.
In her signature books she paired each illustration with a short commentary, Goldfarb writes in his catalog essay. “Given the lapse of more than 40 years between the first and last editions of ‘Glimpses of Old Mobile,’ buildings pictured and described in earlier editions had to be removed as they had been demolished.”
The artist “inspired a commitment to historic preservation by blending poetic prose with her delicate etchings to bring the architectural treasures of Mobile to life for her readers,” Goldfarb writes. “Her metaphors personify the buildings, for example, comparing windows to eyes, which furthers the reader’s identification with the structures.
“Her use of the first-person plural ‘we’ or ‘our’ spoke to the larger Mobile community — admittedly the upper-class white community — in whom she had hoped to instill a sense of possession and pride and an awareness of the vulnerability of these architectural relics.”
Goldfarb worked with Paul W. Richelson, chief curator for the Mobile Museum of Art, and members of the artist’s family to organize the exhibit of etchings, pen-and-ink drawings, photographs and old maps of the city.
As noted in the catalog, in 1980 the artist granted an interview to the Azalea City News & Review, the then 74-year-old Acker was described as “tall” and “statuesque,” a “dowager” and “grande dame” — and, perhaps most accurately, as “one of Mobile’s originals.”
|
http://blog.al.com/pr-community-news/2010/09/post_22.html
|
|
|
Prev
Is that the RSA and the convention center in the reflection? Wow. 
where the old CSX building was located.
Linear Mode
