Description:

Ed McGowin (American/Mississippi, b. 1938), "Inflatable Sculpture with T.V.", acrylic on canvas, unsigned, gallery label with artist and title en verso, 56 in. x 50 1/4 in., period frame. Provenance: Property of the New Orleans Museum of Art, Sold to Benefit the Acquisitions Fund. Note: A Hattiesburg, MS native, Ed McGowin completed an undergraduate degree at Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi) in Hattiesburg in 1960, studying in the small art department with Vernon Merrifield, Walter Lok and Charles Ambrose. After one semester of graduate painting studies at the University of Alabama, McGowin accepted a position as an art instructor and returned to Mississippi Southern, teaching there until his move in 1962 to Washington, D.C., then a more supportive environment for a Southern artist than New York. McGowin rapidly established himself as a pioneering figure in the art worlds of New York, Washington and Baltimore during the 1960s and 1970s. An exhibition of his paintings was presented at the Corcoran Gallery in December of 1962. Following this first exhibition at the Corcoran, he was invited by Henrietta Ehrsam to join her stable of artists at the Henri Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. During the 1960s, he witnessed a proliferation of new styles and movements including Pop, Neo-Dada, Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, Conceptual, Earth and Feminist art. In April 1964 McGowin wrote that his art would be: “changing constantly, never repeating anything no matter how much I like it....I don’t want to be put in any school or group. It is too confining—I want to be able to do anything I damn please—which is the only way….I don’t want a label unless the label is change. I change every day, every hour, every second. Why shouldn’t my art change, and the more the better…” In keeping with this desire, McGowin had his name changed legally twelve times in 1970 as a didactic work of art, creating and exhibiting works under each name as a way “to explore a theory I conceived about the way art history would evolve in the future.” In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an developing sense of the importance of contemporary Southern art, and McGowin and his unique works were an important part of the foundation for the future acceptance of Southern artists. Over the course of his career, McGowin was recognized as an “artist’s artist,” known for his technical skill, innovation and unique vision. Due, in part, to his continual evolutions in styles and materials, as well as his deliberate use of diverse names in his projects, McGowin remains an elusive artist in large part. At times baffling critics and the general public, he has avoided the creation of easily identifiable imagery. The work offered here is an example of that imagery, depicting a mysterious and dramatically-lit interior with a narrative known only to the artist. Gruber, Richard J. “Ed McGowin and T.M. Dossett: True Stories and The Southern Voice.” Ed McGowin. http://www.edmcgowin.com. Accessed August 13, 2016.

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September 25, 2016 11:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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