NASHVILLE, Tenn. (NELSON) -- The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is celebrating the start of summer by opening a couple of new exhibits.
A media preview for the exhibition, Creation Story: Gee’s Bend Quilts and the Art of Thorton Dial was held Thursday, May 25th. The shows examine the connections between folk and self-taught artists of the American South.
The works on display were collected by William Arnett, founder of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, and curated by the Frist Center's Mark Scala. Arnett collected the pieces over a 30 year span. Some of the artwork might have never been preserved without his interest.
“Some of the most extraordinary things that had ever existed, existed here in the black south and were being made by people that no one knew were making it and Mr. Dial was clearly one of the greatest that I had ever seen and the greatest artist anywhere.”
Self-taught Alabama artist Thornton Dial also attended the opening and stressed how the exhibition and Arnett meant everything to him.
The tour also features pieces by other southern artists, including Gee’s Bend Quilts, Bill Traylor, and Edward Burtynsky
The exhibition will continue at the Frist through September 23, 2012.