The Cameron Art Museum Shows "Swamp Songs" of Clyde Connell

Written by Alan Fincher Saturday, 31 December 2011 21:44

Wilmington, NC.- The Cameron Art Museum is proud to present "Clyde Connell: Swamp Songs" until October 2nd. Clyde Connell’s natural language is from the swamp land of Louisiana. She discovered her voice there and her artwork reflects its magical effects. In a New York Times obituary, noted art critic Roberta Smith described artist Clyde Connell’s source of inspiration:  “Like Georgia O’Keefe, she drew inspiration from the region in which she lived.  She used brown earth and red clay to color her drawings and sculptures, as well as bits of iron scrap that her son, Brian, a cotton farmer, found in his fields.  She had a mystical view of nature and described her drawings as transcriptions of its music, heard on the bayou.”

Initially a representational artist, Connell connected with Abstract Expressionism after a visit to New York City in the 1950’s. She was automatically drawn to the work of its artists and the forms it took--it was a language she understood. Another strong influence on Connell was the African American families she grew up with on her father’s plantation. Her empathetic ear and heart reverberates especially in her portraits. The bulk of Connell’s work was done over a thirty year period while living with her husband on Lake Bistineau in northwest Louisiana. "Clyde Connell: Swamp Songs" includes canvases of mixed media of monochromatic melodies drawn with apparent random precision. The totems in the exhibition include a range in size from small to very large “towers.” Entwined within the artwork are mural-sized photographs of life on the swamp which lends an immersive quality to the experience. One can all but hear the sounds of the Louisiana wetlands. Connell’s early work is reflected in paintings and prints in the exhibition. The concluding film “Clyde Connell Swamp Song” by Adam Simon in 1985, speaks to Connell’s process and method of construction of her artwork.


Connell, died at the age of 97, having worked full-time as an artist since her sixties.  Connell’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), the New Orleans Museum of Art, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Texas. This exhibition, organized by the Cameron Art Museum, includes work loaned from the private collections, in addition to work from museum collections. The exhibition includes sculpture, drawings, paintings, photographs, film and ephemera relating to the artist’s life and work. The artist’s daughter, Clyde C. Ent, lives in Wilmington, NC with her husband Bill Ent, and is a consultant to the exhibition.

The Cameron Art Museum occupies a 40,000 square foot facility designed in 2002 by the renowned architectural firm of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates (NYC). Formerly located in downtown Wilmington, N.C. as St. John's Museum of Art, the new Cameron Art Museum is sited on a 9.3 acre woodland park known as Pyramid Park, featuring long-leaf pine woodlands, outdoor sculptures, nature trails, a historic Civil War site and The Clay Studio housed in the Pancoe Art Education Center. The main museum building includes three exhibition areas, the Weyerhaeuser lecture and reception hall, a full service museum café and catering kitchen, museum gift shop and free parking. The Cameron Art Museum was formerly named St. John’s Museum of Art, operating 1964-2001 in a cluster of historic buildings located in downtown Wilmington. In the mid-1990’s, the St. John’s Museum was in need of better environmental conditions and expanded space. In 1997, the Museum trustees launched a capital campaign and began to search for a new building site. After exhausting efforts to secure appropriate property in the downtown area, the newly-named Cameron Art Museum opened at the intersection of south 17th and Independence Streets, located between the downtown and beach communities. The Cameron Art Museum is committed to arts education, and presents exhibitions and public programs of both historical and contemporary significance, with 6-8 changing exhibitions annually, in addition to outdoor, site-specific projects on its park property. The Museum's permanent collection of fine arts, crafts and design includes work by artists of national and international significance, including works by North Carolina artists. Selected works from the permanent collection are exhibited periodically in thematic exhibitions. The Museum’s collection includes many vulnerable works on paper, and is therefore not kept on view permanently given conservation concerns of sustained damage from prolonged exposure to light. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.cameronartmuseum.com/

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