Expert on American Culture To Reflect on Grandma Moses’Art and Popularity At the Historic Asolo Theater
Sarasota, FL –Feb. 27, 2008 – Art lovers will explore the art and fame of Grandma Moses at An Evening With the Guest of the Director: Karal Ann Marling, Grandma Moses and the American Past program on Tuesday, March 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Along with Lee Kogan, curator of Special Exhibitions and Public Programs at the American Folk Art Museum, Marling is guest curator of the Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation exhibition. The exhibition is on view in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing through April 13, 2008.
“Grandma Moses’ art and rise to fame can best be understood through a cultural lens,” said Dr. John Wetenhall Executive Director of the Ringling Museum. “Karal Ann will offer a deeper understanding of Grandma Moses’s popularity as a folk artist by situating her within the social and cultural influences in America during the time in which she painted.”
Marling is a leading authority on American Art and popular culture, is an award-winning professor in both Art History and American Studies at the University of Minnesota and co-authored the book Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories and the American Hero with Wetenhall.
Marling will join Wetenhall in exploring how Grandma Moses rose to such fame during a time when the public debate on what was considered “art” was heated. Marling has authored a companian book for the exhibition, Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses where she dissects this debate.
Grandma Moses, at the age of 76, began painting in earnest during the 1930s and continued until her death at the age of 101. Drawing from memory and the landscape of upstate New York for subject matter, Grandma Moses’s paintings are icons of the simple life. This general heartiness of subject matter and sense of comfort they provide viewers often led critics to label Grandma Moses as a folk artist. She was often dispised by trained artists; however Moses became the darling of New York galleries and Washington politicians.
A book signing reception will follow the program.
Tickets for An Evening With the Guest of the Director: Karal Ann Marling, Grandma Moses and the American Past: Illustrating Autobiography are $25 and $20 for Ringling Museum Members and are available at the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office by calling 941.360.7399.
Tickets to the Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation exhibition are not included in the program price. Regular Museum admission is $19 for adults; $16 for seniors and $6 for children and free for children under five and Museum members.