In honor of Lisë Swensson's retirement
As befits the retirement of the Executive Director of an art museum after a thirteen year tenure, HMA and its Board thanked Lisë at her April 7, 2017 farewell reception through the addition of two new works to the Museum's Permanent Collection.
A work by Lisë’s artist husband Dan Smith, the abstract collage Caduce U.S. Birdhouse, was donated by Preston and Sandy Bryant in Lisë’s honor. (Preston was at one time HMA Board President.)
Dan Smith earned BFA and MFA degrees in Painting from East Carolina University and the University of South Carolina, respectively. In 1989, Smith’s first watercolor exhibit entry was selected for the South Carolina Watercolor Society’s exhibition. Since that show, Smith’s artwork, featuring a variety of media, has been showcased in more than 100 exhibitions throughout the United States.
During the past twenty years also, Smith has taught college level painting, drawing, design and photography studio courses, as well as art appreciation, American civilization and culture, and western civilization and culture. Before moving to Hickory, NC, where he has taught at Appalachian State University, he taught at several Virginia colleges. (From Dan Smith's web site.)
HMA's Acquisitions Committee had earlier appreciatively approved the Museum's purchase of Leo Twiggs 2016 batik painting White Cow Down Have Blues for the HMA permanent collection, also in Lisë’s honor.
"After almost 40 years of experimenting, developing and using wax and dyes as a painting medium, I still find the process fascinating. I feel that I have come to the place in my career where I am not just experimenting with a medium I developed, but an instrument that has become a part of my thought processes. The medium is as much a part of my message as the message itself. It is an exciting place to be in my life as an artist.
"All of my works have deep roots in my experiences growing up in the South but my intent, as always, is to explore the human condition. It is this exploration, I believe, that makes art endearing and enduring." (From the artist's web site.)
Twiggs was born in St. Stephen, SC. He received his BA Summa Cum Laude from Claflin University, later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, received his MA from New York University, and earned his doctorate in Art Education from the University of Georgia. As Professor of Art at South Carolina State University, he developed the Art Department and I.P. Stanback Museum. On his retirement, Twiggs was named Professor Emeritus in 2000.
Lisë herself added to the Permanent Collection through the donation of folk artist Patti Fenick's Cream of Andy, a Warhol appropriation that graced Lisë's HMA office for much of her time there. Fenick works and lives in Hickory.
" Appropriation is the practice of creating new work by taking a preexisting image from another source ...and transforming or combining it with new ones." (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis) It is a common practice, without intent to deceive: think Mona Lisa.
First posted August 21, 2017
Post by Karin Borei, HMA Project Coordinator, writer and editor as needed, and HMA blogger since March 2015.
