At Kennesaw State University
A significant mission of Kennesaw State University is to care for, research, exhibit, and add to the Permanent Collection of Art, and to design and fund a 20,000 square foot museum to house the collection and expand space for temporary exhibitions. Plans are underway to raise funds from the private sector for a $4,000,000 museum. The Permanent Collection contains over 200 works of 19th to early 20th century American paintings and prints by such noted artists as Sanford Gifford, Elliot Daingerfield, N. C. Wyeth, Everett Shinn, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Hart Benton. Since 1998, the collection has expanded through gifts of over 100 contemporary sculptures and paintings, and the installation of twelve sculptures on the grounds and in four buildings by Ruth Zuckerman, Ric Snead, Viola Frey and others. Recently a grouping of bronze sculptures was installed on the lawn outside the KSU Student Center. These sculptures were created by David Landis and his students in a bronze-casting class that concluded a Sculpture-on-the-Grounds competition won by Landis.
The KSU Permanent Art Collection is located in many places across the campus. Some of the best pieces in the collection are available to see on the 5th floor of Kennesaw Hall and may be visited Monday through Friday between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., or at other prearranged times by calling 770-423-6033. Conference rooms and public areas in several buildings and the Jolley Lodge are also Permanent Collection viewing places.
The KSU Galleries offer a Permanent Art Collection Exhibition once every two years. The Collection is available for loan to other educational institutions and museums.
We are pleased to present here a selection of drawings, prints, and paintings from the permanent collection of the university. The Permanent Collection includes work by such famous American nineteenth century landscape as George Inness, Homer Dodge Martin, Alfred Bricher, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and William Sidney Mount, and by 20th century artists Thomas Hart Benton, Marc Chagall, Everett Schinn and Lionel Feininger.
The permanent collection of art at Kennesaw State University was established in 1972 when five original graphic works were given to the college by Mr. and Mrs. Fred D. Bentley, Sr. and Mr. and Mrs. J. Alan Sellars. These prints, recovered from works lost from the 1940 Venice Bienniale International Art Exhibition, were by artists of international fame.
Included in this exhibition are a woodcut by Lionel Feininger, an etching by George Grosz and a lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton. These works, along with original prints by Kenneth Hayes Miller and Jerome Myers, were the nucleus of the collection which has grown to include over two hundred works of art. The majority of the works have been given by the Bentleys and the Sellars with additional works given by the late Dr. Robert P. Coggins and by Dr. and Mrs. Noah P. Meadows. One very important painting. “Circus Group”, by Everett Shinn, a noted painter of the early 20th century American “Ashcan School,” was presented by an anonymous donor. Works given by individual artists from the Atlanta area who were interested in the art program at the college have been added over the years.
A wide range of techniques and processes are represented in the collection. Paintings in oils, watercolor, acrylic, and tempera are included. Original prints include etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, silkscreens, and monoprints.
The permanent collection has particular strength in the area of American landscape painting. It contains works by a number of well known artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Landscape paintings in the exhibition include those by George Inness, William Fisher, John Enneking, Edmund Darch Lewis, J. Foxcroft Cole, and Homer Dodge Martin. Arthur B. Davies, an early American modernist, is represented by a small figure drawing, in addition to two landscape studies in oil. Contemporary Georgia artists are represented by Lamar Dodd and Thomson Salter.
The Landscape was the dominant subject for American 19th century artists. However, landscape painting in the United States usually emphasized the grandeur of nature with man an insignificant observer, whereas European landscapes often included old ruins and people amidst natural elements. Later in the 19th century, many American artists studied in France and were influenced by “plein air” painting and by Impressionism.
The tiny glowing fall landscape is by Francois Daubigny, a noted French artist of the Barbizon School. The Barbizon artists were the first group of artists to paint the landscape “en plein aire” rather than working in their studio from preliminary sketches. These artists influenced American landscape painting of the mid-to-late 19th century by painting outdoors. George Inness, perhaps the best known painter of the American Luminist School, was influenced by Daubigny. A small water color painting by Inness is included in the exhibition. The looser painting style and subject matter of the landscape directly observed can be seen in paintings by Americans Harriet Lumis Landscapes with Cows, John Murphy Landscape, and Homer Dodge Martin Harp of The Winds. The "plein air" style of the Barbizon School led to the French Impressionest style.
"The Children" attributed to the great American artist Mary Cassatt, is an example of Impressionist style, with its brighter palette, looser brushwork, and depiction of everyday outdoor scenes.
“Selections from the Collection” also include fine examples of 19th century and early 20th century seascapes by George Douglas Brewerton, Alfred Thomas Bricher, George Gay and William Robinson. Kennesaw’s collection has been displayed at the Etowah Arts Council Gallery in Cartersville, and the Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art. Individual pieces have been loaned to exhibitions in New York, Georgia, and Florida over the years.
When the Art Gallery in the Sturgis Library was opened in 1981, the first exhibition shown was of works given by the major collectors in our community. They were recognized and honored at that time, and again when we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the college in 1988. Thomson Salter, curator of the permanent collection since its inception until his retirement in 1989, and Roberta Griffin, director of the galleries, curated an exhibition drawn from the permanent collection and from the collections of the four major donors. The exhibition, “Marietta Collects,” has a color catalogue. This exhibition was curated by Roberta Griffin and Suzanne Talbott, both on the KSU Art Gallery staff. The Permanent Collection is displayed every three-to-four years and many of its outstanding pieces hang in public spaces on the campus. The collection is available for loan to other university galleries and museums.