The RISD Museum shows 'Honky Tonk Portraits of Country Music'

Wednesday, 20 June 2007 01:37

PROVIDENCE, RI - In the lush gelatin-silver images of Honky Tonk Portraits of Country Music, 1972– 1981, photographer and country music fan Henry Horenstein (RISD BFA 1971, MFA 1973) affectionately documents stars and fans in 1970s-era honky tonks. Before Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton were headliners filling vast auditoriums, they first proved themselves in honky tonks. Intimate and often seedy, these live-music venues (jukeboxes were around at the turn of century and the 50s were their heyday), brought smoke-filled glamour to country music fans throughout the United States.

The 1970s were an especially fascinating and transitional time for country music, marking the end of traditional honky tonks and the beginning of a new style infused with folk and rock influences. In these photos, legends such as Mother Maybelle Carter and Bill Monroe literally stand shoulder to shoulder with this new generation of musicians.

The RISD Museum’s presentation will be organized by theme with several sections on performers and fans at different venues--the outdoor festivals, the Grand Ole Opry, and the honky tonks, and then a section of his portraits of the performers. The installation will include about 35 photographs, many of which capture the moments before and after the performances such as musicians signing autographs, life backstage, barkeeps tending bar, and passing time in the country music parks.

“Henry began this series while working on his photography degree at RISD, having begun his studies as a history major at the University of Chicago,” explains Jan Howard, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs and coordinator of the Museum’s presentation. “He understood early on the importance of what he was documenting. Following in the tradition of Walker Evans or Diane Arbus, Horenstein really immersed himself in his subject and allowed his personal passion guide his artistic eye.”

Today, Horenstein is a widely exhibited artist and the author of more than 30 books, including a series of textbooks that have been widely used by hundreds of thousands of photography students over past 30 years. He is represented in the permanent collections of The RISD Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), High Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution, among many others. He lives in Boston and teaches at RISD, where he is a professor of photography.

The exhibition is accompanied by the 144-page book Honky Tonk: Portraits of Country Music, 1972–1981, published in 2003 by Chronicle Books. His other publications include the recent Close Relations (powerHouse Books, 2007), another collection of images Horenstein shot as a RISD photography student under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. Both books are available at The RISD Museum Shop.

Visit The RISD Museum at : www.risd.edu/museum.cfm