The Ebony Fashion Fair began in 1958, and over the next 50 years the traveling fashion show blossomed into an American institution that raised millions for charity and helped Johnson Publishing Company reach audiences. Show organizers overcame racial prejudice to bring the pinnacle of Europe's premier fashion to communities that were eager to see, in real time and space, a new vision of black America that was the hallmark of Ebony and Jet magazines. Eunice Johnson took over as producer and director in 1963, and under her direction, the traveling show took on new heights as she expanded her cachet and power within fashion circles. Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair recreates the experience of the Ebony Fashion Fair through the story of Mrs. Johnson and more than 60 garments from icons of the fashion industry such as Yves St. Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Lacroix, and Patrick Kelly among others.
"American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals traces Hassam's artistic exploration of Appledore Island, the largest island of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, where he traveled nearly every summer for thirty years"--
This catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition Weatherspoon Art Museum: 70 Years of Collecting, on view from February 5-May 11, 2011. In 1941 Gregory D. Ivy, an artist, teacher, and the first head of the art department at Women's College, founded the Weatherspoon Art Gallery. Ivy was motivated by his belief that students should have firsthand experience of the art of their time. During the seven decades following his astute vision, the Weatherspoon has evolved from a small teaching gallery to a fully accredited museum with a national reputation that still places education at the heart of its mission. Ivy also felt the gallery would benefit the community, and he needed its support. This book, begins with a history spun from a collection of stories about the people who so generously heeded the call. Over the years, the Weatherspoon has been the most fortunate recipient of remarkable support, both moral and financial, from the university and the greater Greensboro community. It has also benefited from a host of dedicated employees and key events that have shaped it into a modern and contemporary art museum with a significant collection. Published on the occasion of the Weatherspoon Art Museum's seventieth anniversary year, this beautifully designed and illustrated book reproduces one hundred noteworthy works of art from the collection, each accompanied by a thoughtful essay. The objects included represent each decade from the turn of the twentieth century to the first decade of this century. Among those showcased are works by Henri Matisse, David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Eva Hesse, Robert Rauschenberg, and Elizabeth Murray. Although the majority of the artists in the Weatherspoon's collection are recognized for their long, successful careers, the inclusion of a few younger artists demonstrates the museum's commitments to promising new voices. The first significant publication to focus on the Weatherspoon's collections, 70 Years of Collecting guarantees to be an informative and enjoyable read. Contributors in this book are K. Porter Aichele, George Dimock, Nancy M. Doll, Xandra Eden, Richard Gantt, Carl Goldstein, Ann Grimaldi, Elaine D. Gustafson, Heather Holian, Elizabeth Perrill, and Will South.
This book is a love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds defining North Carolina's extraordinary contributions to American popular music. David Menconi spent three decades immersed in the state's music, where traditions run deep but the energy expands in countless directions. Menconi shows how working-class roots and rebellion tie North Carolina's Piedmont blues, jazz, and bluegrass to beach music, rock, hip-hop, and more. From mill towns and mountain coves to college-town clubs and the stage of American Idol, Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk, Step It Up and Go celebrates homegrown music just as essential to the state as barbecue and basketball. Spanning a century of history from the dawn of recorded music to the present, and with sidebars and photos that help reveal the many-splendored glory of North Carolina's sonic landscape, this is a must-read for every music lover.
Thomas Day (1801-61), a free man of color from Milton, North Carolina, became the most successful cabinetmaker in North Carolina--white or black--during a time when most blacks were enslaved and free blacks were restricted in their movements and activities. His surviving furniture and architectural woodwork still represent the best of nineteenth-century craftsmanship and aesthetics. In this lavishly illustrated book, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll show how Day plotted a carefully charted course for success in antebellum southern society. Beginning in the 1820s, he produced fine furniture for leading white citizens and in the 1840s and '50s diversified his offerings to produce newel posts, stair brackets, and distinctive mantels for many of the same clients. As demand for his services increased, the technological improvements Day incorporated into his shop contributed to the complexity of his designs. Day's style, characterized by undulating shapes, fluid lines, and spiraling forms, melded his own unique motifs with popular design forms, resulting in a distinctive interpretation readily identified to his shop. The photographs in the book document furniture in public and private collections and architectural woodwork from private homes not previously associated with Day. The book provides information on more than 160 pieces of furniture and architectural woodwork that Day produced for 80 structures between 1835 and 1861. Through in-depth analysis and generous illustrations, including over 240 photographs (20 in full color) and architectural photography by Tim Buchman, Marshall and Leimenstoll provide a comprehensive perspective on and a new understanding of the powerful sense of aesthetics and design that mark Day's legacy.
Ancient Mediterranean Art in the Ackland Art Museum presents the collection of ancient art in the Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This collection includes a broad array of works of art that come from many parts of the ancient Mediterranean world, including Egypt and the Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Iran, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy, ranging in date from ca. 5000 BCE to 1100 CE. The collection contains large- and small-scale sculptures made of marble, bronze, terracotta, limestone, and gold and vessels formed of clay, stone, and bronze. Notable groups of objects include Egyptian amulets made of faience, Near Eastern cylinder seals, Cypriot votive statuary of limestone, Greek and Roman coins, and Roman vessels of glass. Started in 1958, the collection has grown considerably and now includes objects discovered through official excavations in Egypt and the Nile valley and Italy, along with gifts of former faculty members and friends of the University and Museum. From its beginning, the collection was intended to be diverse in scope and was founded to bring to Chapel Hill works of art that would directly support the teaching mission of the university. This volume showcases a significant and valuable collection as never before.
