Press Room:
African American art exhibition focused on southern history

For more information contact:
Emily Fraize, 501-396-0308
efraize@arkarts.com
April 7, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

African American art exhibition focused on southern history

Artist Whitfield Lovell created this piece after a series of deaths in his tightly knit family sparked an interest in exploring his family’s history and in collecting old photographs found in flea markets and antique stores.

Deceptively simple on the surface, the work is a complex mixture, steeped in concepts of presence, absence, memory, identity, history and loss. The center piece of the installation is a one-room dwelling surrounded by clothing, filled with personal effects and life-size charcoal drawings of human figures on the walls. These masterfully drawn figures give the piece a strong human presence as their haunting, silent imminence speaks in whispers, not shouts.

Lovell’s exploration of African American life is further enhanced by adding layers of sensory experience, from the scents of musty fabric, a half-filled decanter of whiskey and fresh flowers in a vase, to the sounds of a 1920s blues tune that seems to emanate from an old record player. The effect is to make the viewer feel at once like an intruder in the present and a visitor to the past.

Brian Young, curator of art, said, “Whispers from the Walls” provides an excellent opportunity for Arts Center visitors to see an important contemporary piece by an artist that is also represented in the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection. It is a rare chance to put our permanent collection in greater context.”

GENERAL INFORMATION
A full color catalogue, published by the University of North Texas, with essays by Lucy R. Lippard and Jennifer Ellen Way and photographs of all the artist’s installation projects, will be for sale in the Museum Shop.

Contact: 501-372-4000
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm
Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm
Closed Monday and Major Holidays
Credit Language: A Program of Exhibits USA, A National Division of Mid-America Arts Alliance
Sponsors: Chucki and curt Bradbury; Munro Foundation; Jim Alexander; Dr. Archie and Garbo Hearne; Dianne and Bobby Tucker; Dr. Alonzo and Susan Williams; Jim and Patti Womble; JPMS Cox, PLLC