Celebrating Freedom: The Art of Willie Birch at SMoCA.

Saturday, 18 November 2006 15:09

Scottsdale, AZ - Willie Birch, who was born and raised in New Orleans, created this monumental series of charcoal drawings, (some as much as twelve-feet long), to pay tribute to his hometown culture.  Birch returned to New Orleans in 1994, after living in New York for decades, and moved to within walking distance of the French Quarter.  In these vibrant character studies, he reconnects with the everyday street scenes, musical legacy, impromptu parades and vibrant rituals of New Orleans’ African-American community.  A tour-de-force of draftsmanship, the drawings document traditions and celebrations of African-American life.  Birch’s subjects include Mardi Gras krewes and parades; festivities for Martin Luther King Day; family gatherings; Sunday church rituals; baptisms; and jazz funerals.

Mardi Gras and the colorful extravaganza of this pre-Lenten revelry in New Orleans—unlike anything else in the United States— is a recurrent theme for Birch.  This exhibition coincides with Mardi Gras, a rich backdrop for a host of related public programs, festivities and special events at SMoCA.

Birch, (who traveled to Nairobi and Kenya on a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1993), is fascinated by the retention of African traditions in the dress, music, dance and rituals that enliven and unite the African-American community.  Through his work, he highlights the many ways that the complex history and artistic legacy of African-America has inspired American culture at large, as for example through jazz, soul and hip-hop.  He looks equally at populist art forms and “high” art to celebrate the true freedom of cultural expression, which has triumphed over a dark past of slavery and of economic hardship. 

Although Birch’s earlier funky, folk-inspired sculptures are widely known, these elegant charcoal drawings are newly on view in this exhibition, the first major museum survey of Birch’s work.  Birch attended Southern University in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, from which he received his B.A. prior to his earning his graduate degree at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. Birch has been honored with the Mayor’s Arts Award in New Orleans and awarded public-art projects for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority and Philadelphia International Airport.  He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, among many others.  In 2002, Birch was the artist in residence for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.

This exhibition is accompanied by a book published by Hudson Hills Press with essays by David S. Rubin (curator of the exhibition), Dr. Leslie King-Hammond (dean of the Maryland Institute College of Art), and Lolis Eric Elie (journalist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and author of Smokestack Lightning: Adventures In The Heart Of Barbecue Country, 2005, Ten Speed Press) as well as an interview with the artist.  On exhibit January 13 – April 8, 2007.

Celebrating Freedom: The Art of Willie Birch is organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans.  The exhibition is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, and the Edward Wisner Fund.  Sponsored locally by SRP, Dr. Jamie and Peggy Kapner, Alice and David Olsan, Mikki and Stanley Weithorn and the SMoCA Salon.

ABOUT SMoCA

Founded in 1999, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA] is the only museum in Arizona devoted to the art, architecture and design of our time. Global in its focus, the Museum is a unique and vital cultural resource for the Southwest, serving local audiences as well as visitors from throughout the United States and abroad.  Designed by award-winning architect Will Bruder, SMoCA’s minimalist building has five galleries for showcasing changing exhibitions and works from the Museum’s growing permanent collection.  SMoCA also features an outdoor sculpture garden housing James Turrell’s “Knight Rise,” one of the renowned artist’s few public skyspaces, and “Scrim Wall,” a monumental curtain of translucent glass panels by James Carpenter Design Associates.  The Museum presents a wide variety of educational programs and special events for adults and families, including lectures.  Web: www.smoca.org