The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Shows Work by John Alexander & Walter Anderson

Written by Sue Strachan Friday, 28 October 2011 23:25

New Orleans.- The work of Southern artists is often infused with a deep sense of place and time. Whether inspired by the small-town of the artist's birth, the land, the waters, be it river, lake or sea, the music, the people or even the animals, that sense of place shows up in subtle, surprising or literal ways, unique to each artist. "One World, Two Artists" will attempt to show how the Gulf Coast was a shared source of inspiration to two native artists: John Alexander and Walter Anderson. The "One World, Two Artists: John Alexander and Walter Anderson" exhibition is currently on view at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and remains open until mid-July.

Walter Inglis Anderson was born in 1903 in New Orleans to George Walter Anderson, a grain merchant, and Annette McConnell Anderson, an artist. His mother’s love of art, music, and literature strongly influenced Walter and his two brothers. Anderson was educated at a private boarding school, then attended the Parsons Institute of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where his drawings earned him a scholarship for study abroad. Anderson felt that an artist should create affordable work that brought pleasure to others, and in return, the artist should be able to pursue his artistic passions. In the 1930s, he worked on regional Works Progress Administration mural projects and began to view his role in art as a muralist. It was in the late 1930s that Anderson first succumbed to mental illness. He was diagnosed with severe depression and spent three years in and out of hospitals.

In 1947, with the understanding of his family, Anderson left his wife and children and embarked on a private and very solitary existence. He lived alone in a cottage on the Shearwater compound, and increased his visits to Horn Island, one of a group of barrier islands along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Anderson’s obsession to "realize" his subjects through his art, to be one with the natural world instead of an intruder, created works that are intense and evocative. Walter Anderson died at the age of 62 in a New Orleans hospital of lung cancer. Much of the work survived only by chance; it was discovered in drifts, like autumn leaves, throughout his cottage after his death. Those found treasures present the viewer today with a fascinating opportunity to share Anderson’s vision.

Born in 1945 in Beaumont, Texas, John Alexander remained in southeast Texas until entering graduate school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1969. Upon completing an MFA in 1970, he moved to Houston, established a studio and became a member of the art faculty of the University of Houston. In the late 1970’s Alexander left Texas for New York where he is to this day. The artist currently divides his time between New York City and Amagansett. John Alexander has exhibited extensively in the United States and around the world, most recently in Beijing.

He has had a major retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. His work is included in the permanent collections of leading museums including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Dallas Museum of Art; The Meadows Museum in Dallas, The McNay Museum in San Antonio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Nevada Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, as well as many other distinguished public and private collections worldwide. John Alexander has also been a frequent visitor to Horn Island, chasing the same shared muse as Walter Anderson. Two artists from different eras and places in the South, but both attuned to their surroundings, bringing forth beauty through their expressive talent.

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art/University of New Orleans is home to the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world, and includes the Center for Southern Craft and Design. Here you will find the story of the South, both the old and the new, as told through its art, music and education programs. The museum includes Stephen Goldring Hall, which opened in 2003, and two buildings under construction and renovation: the Clementine Hunter Education Wing and the Patrick F. Taylor Library, designed by American 19th-century architect, Henry Hobson Richardson. Among the many artists represented in the museum’s collection are Benny Andrews, William Dunlap, Ida Kohlmeyer, Will Henry Stevens, Kendall Shaw and George Ohr. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.ogdenmuseum.org

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