Barry Hannah (1942 - 2010)

Barry Hannah, 1997, gelatin silver print by David Spielman
Gift of the artist in honor of J. Richard Gruber

On Monday March 1, 2010, Barry Hannah passed away in Oxford, Mississippi. He was sixty-seven. A giant in the rich literary tradition of the South, his influence is not only evidenced in the critical praise his work has received over the past thirty-plus years, but also in the heartfelt outpouring of memorials and remebrances by writers in the past few days. The following are just a few examples that stand out: The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Oxford American.

In honor of Barry Hannah, his portrait from David Spielman's Southern Writers series has been placed in the atrium of Goldring Hall. Over a period of 120 days in 1997, David Spielman photographed 72 Southern writers, including Barry Hannah. The complete series was shown at the Ogden Museum in 2007. In December of 2009, Spielman donated thirty-four prints from this series, Hannah's included, to the Ogden Museum in honor of J. Richard Gruber, who retired as Director in November.

On the Road with Benny Andrews

On the Road with Benny Andrews by Stanley Staniski

In the spring of 2004, Benny Andrews initiated a project in conjunction with the Ogden Museum of Southern Art to explore the migrant experience in America through a series of annual journeys culminating in three exhibitions in New Orleans and New York. These journeys would focus on three aspects of the American migrant experience: the 1930s Dust Bowl migration along Route 66, the forced march of native peoples along the Cherokee Trail of Tears, and the 20th century African-American exodus from the South to New York, Chicago and Detroit. Noted photographer and filmmaker, Stanley Staniski, was invited to document Benny's research for The Migrant Series, traveling the backroads and by-ways of America with this iconic Southern artist.


Benny Andrews and Stanley Staniski at the Grand Canyon
Photo by Ned Traver

Staniski had worked with the Ogden before, creating films about artists including William Christenberry, Will Henry Stevens and William Dunlap. During this time, he initiated his own series of photographs resulting from his journeys with Benny. Of the project, Staniski says:

On the highest level, we were trying to understand history and what migrants went through on their various treks. On the most basic level we were three guys in a car roaming around, following our noses, looking for whatever we could find, with Benny leading the way.

Benny Andrews and Rick Gruber
Photo by Stanley Staniski

Director J. Richard Gruber of the Ogden was involved at the inception of The Migrant Series, as well, and did some travelling with the team, himself. Writing about Benny and Stanley's journeys, Dr. Gruber recalls:

Traveling lightly and economically by car, in Andrews' Volvo station wagon, their extended journeys of exploration are reminiscent of earlier (and often mythic) American road trips, including those by 20th century artists and photographers such as Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Robert Rauschenberg and William Eggleston, and writers like Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck (whose book, The Grapes of Wrath, directly inspired Andrews' Route 66 trip).

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, in 2006 Benny expanded the initial parameters of The Migrant Series to include the diaspora of the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He was never able to finish his vision, though. Benny Andrews died of cancer on November 10, 2006.

Staniski continued to be inspired by his journeys with Benny, expanding his photographic series in the spirit of those travels. When writing about his series, Staniski says:

Other photographic trips grew out of those with Benny, and while I made photographs along roads (Texas, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) other than the specific migrant routes of Benny’s interest, for me they are all of the same series, perhaps they are part of his legacy.

July 4th, Avalon Theatre, McLean, Texas. Photo by Stanley Sataniski

On October 3, 2009, the Ogden Museum opened the exhibition Stanley Staniski: On the Road with Benny Andrews. The exhibition includes thirty-two images, chosen by Chief Curator David Houston from a larger body of work resulting from and inspired by Staniski's travels with Benny Andrews.

Stanley Staniski. Photo by Cheryl Gerber


Lea Barton, Rick Gruber, William Christenberry, Stanley Staniski and Ken Barton. Photo by Cheryl Gerber


Stanley Staniski, Richard Sexton and Richard McCabe. Photo by Cheryl Gerber.

Photo by Cheryl Gerber


Stanley Staniski and Massumeh Farhad, Associate Curator of Islamic Art at the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries

New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy

On Saturday, October 3, 2009, Jose Torres-Tama and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans released New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy: The Artwork of Jose Torres-Tama. This catalogue documents the exhibition of the same name shown at The Ogden Museum and Dillard University's Fine Art Gallery in 2008. Including an introduction by the Ogden's chief curator, David Houston, essays by Torres-Tama and creole historian, Keith Weldon Medley, the catalogue focuses on eighteen pastel drawings of fifteen historical figures belonging to the New Orleans community known as the gens de coleur libres.


Photo by Cheryl Gerber

During the Art for Art's Sake events on Saturday, Torres-Tama and Medley signed copies of the catalogue in a gallery filled with Torres-Tama's pastel portraits of these influential and relevant historical figures, including Marie Laveau, Basile Barres, Edmond Dede, Rose Nicaud and others.

Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Bradley Sumrall, J. Richard Gruber, Jose Torres-Tama and Keith Weldon Medley

Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Jose with wife, Dr. Claudia Copeland, and two sons, Darius and Diego

Photo by Cheryl Gerber.

New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy is available at the Ogden's Museum Shop.

Artist's Studio: Richard Jolley

Richard Jolley's Studio, 2009 by Richard McCabe

In June of 2004, the Ogden Museum hosted its first nationally travelling exhibition, Richard Jolley: Sculptor of Glass. Co-curated by the Ogden's Director, J. Richard Gruber, working with Stephen Wicks, of the Knoxville Museum of Art, the exhibition debuted at the Knoxville Museum of Art before beginning a national tour. The travelling exhibition featured works by the artist from 1984 through 2002, and was accompanied by a catalogue featuring a comprehensive essay by Dr. Gruber. In its Ogden incarnation, Dr. Gruber and the artist incorporated works made after 2002, showing his response to the exhibition.

Jolley at the Kiln, 2009 by Richard McCabe

In June of 2009, the Ogden's Richard McCabe and Bradley Sumrall were treated to a tour of the West Knoxville studio that Jolley has worked in since 1975, catching a glimpse of the new direction this ever-changing artist is taking his work. Set off the highway in a thicket of woods, the studio was filled with activity.

Hand-built Holding Furnaces, 2009 by Richard McCabe

"What I am trying to do is achieve a humanistic art."

Studio Assistant James Breed, 2009 by Richard McCabe

The new forms in Jolley's work are still heavily inspired by classical human forms. One sees a direct relation to his series Busts (1990-1994), Torsos (1994-1996) and Totems (1996-2001), yet the forms are fresh, minimalist, and both contemporary and deeply connected to his Pop Art roots.

Kenneth Gonzales, James Breed and Raul Garcia, 2009 by Richard McCabe

"Jolley views himself as an artist who works in glass, not as a 'glass artist.' For him, the distinction is a critical one," Dr. Gruber wrote in 2002. In 2009, we see that Jolley still holds that belief, and continues to push the boundaries of his medium.