Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art

The Nasher Museum presented Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, which questioned and explored the complex and contested space of the American South. One needs to look no further than literature, cuisine and music to see evidence of the South’s profound influence on American culture, and consequently much of the world. This unprecedented exhibition addresses and complicates the many realities, fantasies and myths that have long captured the public’s imagination about the American South. Presenting a wide range of perspectives, from both within and outside of the region, the exhibition created a composite portrait of southern identity through the work of 60 artists. The art in the exhibition reflects upon and pulls apart the dynamic nature of the South’s social, political and cultural landscape.

“Southern Accent is an extensive exploration of southern identity through contemporary art,” said Trevor Schoonmaker, Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art, and co-curator of the exhibition. “The exhibition has been four years in the making, but the timing of Southern Accent is especially meaningful now – in the wake of Charleston, Orlando, Baton Rouge and countless other tragedies, and given the tense social and racial climate during this presidential election year. We’re an art museum, so exhibitions are our platform for starting conversations. I hope Southern Accent can create a space to reimagine the South in new ways and reframe the way we think about the South in contemporary art. At its best, art can help give shape to cultural and social change, promote needed discourse and even help build community.”

Artists in the Exhibition

Terry Adkins, Walter Inglis Anderson, Benny Andrews, Radcliffe Bailey, Romare Bearden, Sanford Biggers, Willie Birch, Rachel Boillot, Douglas Bourgeois, Roger Brown, Beverly Buchanan, Diego Camposeco, Mel Chin, William Christenberry, Sonya Clark, Robert Colescott, william cordova, Jerstin Crosby and Bill Thelen, Thornton Dial, Sam Durant, William Eggleston, Minnie Jones Evans, Ralph Fasanella, Skylar Fein, Howard Finster, Michael Galinsky, Theaster Gates, Jeffrey Gibson, Deborah Grant, Barkley L. Hendricks, James Herbert and R.E.M., Birney Imes, Jessica Ingram, George Jenne, Deborah Luster, Sally Mann, Kerry James Marshall, Henry Harrison Mayes, Richard Misrach, Jing Niu, Tameka Norris, Catherine Opie, Gordon Parks, Ebony G. Patterson, Fahamu Pecou, Tom Rankin, Dario Robleto, Jim Roche, James “JP” Scott, Amy Sherald, Xaviera Simmons, Mark Steinmetz, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Hank Willis Thomas, Burk Uzzle, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jeff Whetstone.

Open-Ended Question

William Faulkner once suggested that the South is not so much a “geographical place” as an “emotional idea.” Southern Accent looks at the South as an open-ended question to be explored and expanded. The exhibition encompasses a broad spectrum of media and approaches, demonstrating that southernness is more of a shared sensibility than a consistent culture. The exhibition includes work dating back to the 1950s, but primarily focuses on art produced within the past 30 years. The exhibition also included a curated music library since no region in the United States has contributed more to American music than the South. This music chronology that speaks to southern life provided an invaluable counterpoint to the artwork in the exhibition.

This exhibition was co-organized by Trevor Schoonmaker, Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, and Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

Southern Accent traveled to the Speed Art Museum, where it was on view April 29 – October 14, 2017.

For more information, please peruse the mini website that was on view while the exhibition was at Duke.

Walter Inglis Anderson, Father Mississippi, 1953. Watercolor on paper; 8.5 x 11 inches (21.59 x 27.94 cm). Courtesy of the Family of Walter Inglis Anderson. © Walter Inglis Anderson. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Rachel Boillot, 38765 Panther Burn, MS from the series Post Script, 2014. Archival pigment print, edition 2/12; 20 x 25 inches (50.8 x 63.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © Rachel Boillot.
Douglas Bourgeois, American Address, 2006. Oil on panel; 20 x 16.75 inches (50.8 x 42.55 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana. © Douglas Bourgeois.
Thornton Dial, Monument to the Minds of the Little Negro Steelworkers, 2001–2003. Steel, wood, wire, twine, artificial flowers, ax blade, glass bottles, animal bones, cloth, tin cans, paint-can lids, and enamel; 38 x 76 x 46 inches (96.5 x 193 x 116.8 cm). Courtesy of the artist and William S. Arnett Collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia. © Estate of Thornton Dial. Photo by Stephen Pitkin.
William Eggleston, Jackson, Mississippi, c. 1969. Dye transfer print; 13.563 x 21.063 inches (34.5 x 53.5 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of the Eggleston Artistic Trust, Memphis, Tennessee, and Cheim & Read Gallery, New York, New York. © Eggleston Artistic Trust.
Minnie Jones Evans, Untitled (Feathered face surrounded by two birds and insects), 1963. Ink, wax crayon, and graphite on paper; 8.875 x 12 inches (22.54 x 30.48 cm). Collection of the Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina. Gift of William Banks Hinshaw, Jr.; 2013.14.5. © Estate of Minnie Jones Evans.
Skylar Fein, Black Flag (For Elizabeth’s), 2008. Wood, plaster, and acrylic; 43.5 x 72 x 1.25 inches (110.5 x 183 x 3.2 cm). Collection of Dathel and Tommy Coleman. Image courtesy of the artist and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana. © Skylar Fein.
Jeffrey Gibson, I PUT A SPELL ON YOU, 2015. Repurposed punching bag, glass beads, artificial sinew, and steel; 40 × 14 × 14 inches (101.6 × 35.6 × 35.6 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase, 2015.11.1. © Jeffrey Gibson. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Barkley L. Hendricks, Down Home Taste, 1971. Oil and acrylic on linen; 48 x 48 inches (121.92 x 121.92 cm). Courtesy of the Office of the Dean of Students, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Gift of Michael Straight to the Willard Straight Hall Collection. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York. © Barkley Hendricks.
George Jenne, Spooky Understands, 2013. Video (color, sound); 21:27 minutes. Courtesy of the artist. © 2013 George Jenne.
Deborah Luster, Septima with Tadpoles from the Lost Roads Project, 1993. Gelatin silver print, artist’s proof 2/2; 30 x 30 inches (76.2 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana. © Deborah Luster.
Catherine Opie, Melissa & Lake, Durham, North Carolina from the series Domestic, 1998. Chromogenic print, edition 4/5; 40 x 50 inches (101.6 x 127 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles, California. © Catherine Opie.
Amy Sherald, High Yella Masterpiece: We Ain’t No Cotton Pickin’ Negroes, 2011. Oil on canvas; 59 x 69 inches (149.86 x 175.26 cm). Collection of Keith Timmons, ESQ, CPA. Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. © Amy Sherald.
Diego Camposeco, Quince (Fifteen) from the series Transterrestria, 2014 (printed 2021). Archival ink print, 24 1/4 x 29 inches (61.59 x 73.66 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Museum purchase, 2021.11.3. © Estate of Diego Camposeco. Image courtesy of the artist’s estate.
Hank Willis Thomas, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around, 2015 – 2016. Glass, silver, and digital prints, Dimensions variable. Museum purchase with additional funds provided by JoAnn Busuttil. Commissioned by the Nasher Museum for the exhibition Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art. 2016.18.1.
, Quilt #15, Harmonics 2. .
More Information
Selected Works

Southern Accent Artists: Podcast Series

Exhibition Catalogue

The Nasher Museum published the catalogue Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art on the occasion of the exhibition. The catalogue was honored with a “Merit Award” as part of How International Design Awards of 2017, administered by How Magazine.

This beautifully designed 276-page catalogue offers a robust expansion of investigations raised by works in the exhibition, with texts from myriad perspectives, ranging from groundbreaking scholarship to poetry, song lyrics and personal reflections. The Southern Accent exhibition catalogue was co-edited by the Nasher Museum’s chief curator, Trevor Schoonmaker, and the Speed Art Museum’s curator of contemporary art, Miranda Lash. Southern Accent was designed by Julie Klugman Braude and Reneé Cagnina Haynes. The catalogue is distributed by Duke University Press and available for purchase at the Nasher Museum Store.

Southern Accent Music Library

The exhibition was accompanied by the Southern Accent Music Library, curated by Brendan Greaves, Harrison Haynes and Trevor Schoonmaker. This is an extensive listening library of songs of and about the American South. No region in the United States has contributed more to American music than the South, and its music has played an essential role in defining and exporting “southernness” to the rest of the world. Like the visual works in the exhibition, the recordings in the music library span the 1950s to the present.

Organized both chronologically and thematically, the Southern Accent Music Library functions as a brief, subjective musical history. Selected songs address questions of southern culture, identity, history, folk life and lifestyle, featuring lyrics and compositional and performance styles that have helped define what it means to be southern. Perspectives come from both inside and outside the South, with a strong bent toward artists and traditions from the region. To help demonstrate the diversity and enormity of the South’s musical output and influence, no more than one song has been included by any one artist. While curating this collection is an inherently subjective endeavor, effort has been made to balance greatest hits and southern heroes with unexpected artists and more obscure and provocative tracks. By its very nature, the Southern Accent Music Library is not comprehensive, but the attempt is for the collection to be inclusive when it comes to musical genres, eras and cultural perspectives.

Visitors experienced the complete Southern Accent Music Library at a listening station at the Nasher Museum, as part of Southern Accent.

Nasher in the News

Jankauskas, review of Southern Accent

"...an ambitious, dynamic, and engaging installation that demonstrated the diversity of art from the region and revealed how ideas about 'the South' have permeated beyond its geographic borders, often in thought-provoking ...

file download from Panorama • Association of Historians of American Art • Vol. 4, No. 1 • Spring 2018 | Published June 25, 2018

Gallery installation view, with a work in the foreground by Theaster Gates, Soul Food Rickshaw for Collard Greens and Whiskey, 2012/2016. In the background, on the left: Skylar Fein's Black Flag (For Elizabeth’s). Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, featuring a work by Ebony G. Patterson, Strange Fruitz, on the left and a work on paper by Kara Walker on the right, Cottonhead, a Mouthful of Teeth and Spitting Seeds. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Entrance to the second gallery pavilion for Southern Accent, with a view of Henry Harrison Mayes's work, Untitled, n.d. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, featuring a work in the foreground by Sam Durant, Southern Hospitality, made from a gray military surplus blanket, ax handle and Southern Comfort bottle. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, featuring Jeffrey Gibson's I PUT A SPELL ON YOU in the center foreground. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, featuring (at left), Deborah Grant's work, In the Land of the Blind the Blue Eye Man is King from the series By the Skin of Our Teeth. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, featuring a work (right wall) by Willie Birch. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, with James “JP” Scott's Shrimp Boat in the center foreground, a sculpture by Terry Adkins, Omohundro on the right and a work by Tameka Norris, 12 Times Table on the left. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, with Biscuit King by Jerstin Crosby and Bill Thelen in the center foreground. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, anchored by a sculpture by Dario Robleto, A Defeated Soldier Wishes to Walk His Daughter Down the Wedding Aisle, in the foreground and Sonya Clark’s Unraveling in the background. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation view, with Down Home Taste by Barkley L. Hendricks on the left. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
Gallery installation views of Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art. Photos by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

Articles

Sonya Clark: Unraveling

Sonya Clark, standing straight and tall, gently pats a Confederate flag folded across a work table in her Richmond studio. Respectful, thoughtful and serious, she talks about this swath of fabric that symbolizes a difficul...

Published July 12, 2016

This exhibition was co-organized by Trevor Schoonmaker (left), Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum, and Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Dario Robleto (left) chats with co-curator Miranda Lash at the exhibition opening. Photo by J Caldwell.
Nasher Museum Store. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Fahamu Pecou (right) chats with a visitor during the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Barkley L. Hendricks chats with young visitor Emma Livingston during the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Michelle Seymour (left), business manager at the Nasher Museum, chats with her daughter in the gallery, in front of a work by Beverly Buchanan, Moonshine Man’s House. Photo by J Caldwell.
Two visitors take a close look at a painting by Barkley L. Hendricks. Photo by J Caldwell.
Visitors take a close look at a sculpture by Dario Robleto. Photo by J Caldwell.
Chief Curator Trevor Schoonmaker chats with artist Sonya Clark at the exhibition opening. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Sonya Clark shares a moment with Susan Hendricks, wife of artist Barkley L. Hendricks, at the exhibition opening. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Barkley L. Hendricks takes photos during the opening event for Southern Accent. Photo by J Caldwell.
Co-curators Trevor Schoonmaker, Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum, and Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, take a moment during the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Jim Roche poses in front of his work, Return to Florida, All in My Background: Piece, which has been acquired for the Nasher Museum's collection. Photo by J Caldwell.
Durham artists Chris Vitiello (left) and Stephanie Leathers talk about the work in the gallery. Photo by J Caldwell.
A visitor takes a selfie in front of Hank Willis Thomas's work, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around. Photo by J Caldwell.
Durham artist Rachel Goodwin spends time in a gallery with her partner Ben Riseling. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Fahamu Pecou takes a selfie while dancing during the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Mel Chin (left) dances with co-curator Miranda Lash during the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Grammy Award-winning producer and DJ Ninth Wonder spins music at the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Grammy Award-winning producer and DJ Ninth Wonder spins music at the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
Duke students take a close look at a work by Roger Brown, Kissin’ Cousins. Photo by J Caldwell.
A Duke student takes a close look at several works by Douglas Bourgeois. Photo by J Caldwell.
Artist Sonya Clark performs Unraveling in the gallery, at the opening of Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art. Photo by J Caldwell.
Scenes from the Opening Events

Exhibition Support

Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art was supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; Jennifer McCracken New and Jason New; Trent Carmichael; Katie Thorpe Kerr and Terrance I. R. Kerr; Drs. Victor and Lenore Behar; Caroline and Arthur Rogers; Ann Chanler and Andrew Scheman; Parker & Otis; Lisa Lowenthal Pruzan and Jonathan Pruzan; Kimball Richmond and Rodney Priddy; Sam Tsao; Gail Belvett; and Richard Tigner.