21 November 2015- 27 March 2016

Mint Museum Uptown

at Levine Center for the Arts

Eugene Thomason (American, 1895-1972). Irish Market Scene, 1929, oil on canvas. The Johnson Collection	Eugene Thomason (American, 1895-1972). Pointer Dog, oil on canvas. The Johnson Collection

From New York to Nebo: The Artistic Journey of Eugene Thomason is being organized by The Johnson Collection, one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the country focused on the art of South.  The Johnson Collection has deep holdings in Thomason's art and is supplementing their holdings with loans from museums and private collections, including the Mint's large portrait, Boy with Chrysanthemums. The exhibition, curated by noted expert on Southern art Martha Severens, features approximately forty works of art and will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue containing an essay by Severens and a foreword by the Mint's Dr. Jonathan Stuhlman.  This is a particularly apt exhibition for the Mint to host, as Thomason's work has been shown here three times previously (in 1937, just months after the Museum opened, 1959, and 1964) and this is the first scholarly reappraisal of his work since his death in 1972.

When The Mint Museum opened its doors in 1936, perhaps the most significant artist working in Charlotte, Thomason was one of the region's strongest advocates for contemporary art. Thomason's early art caught the eye of industrialist James B. Duke, who sponsored his studies at the Art Students League in New York.  There, he studied with, and subsequently befriended the noted urban realist George Luks, who had a strong impact on his bold, painterly style.  Thomason returned to the area in 1932 to teach and work closer to family in a more rural setting.  For the next four decades, first in Charlotte and later in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Nebo, Thomason worked in the vigorous, rough-hewn style he had adopted in New York to depict subjects ranging from the local landscapes and important regional events (including documenting FDR's "Green Pastures" rally at Memorial Stadium) to a wide variety of his friends and acquaintances.  He also created a well-known series featuring a fictional rural clan he called "the Hankins."  

Selected Online Resources

• Exhibition review while it was at the Morris Museum of Art
• Article and audio from South Carolina Public Radio
• Journal Article about Thomason from Appalachian Journal on JStor (Subscription access needed, available onsite at the Mint Museum)
• Biography of the artist from the The Johnson Collection
• Exhibition catalog from Thomason's retrospective exhibition at the Mint Museum of Art in 1959 (from The Mint Museum Archives)
• Article about the artist and some of his works from the Asheville Art Museum 
• Article about the artist and the exhibition and accompanying book, From New York to Nebo: The Artistic Journey of Eugene Thomason from The University of South Carolina Press 

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Created by Caitlin Larson Mint Museum Library Volunteer