AUGUSTA, GEORGIA— The Morris Museum of Art’s Friends of African American Art are hosting a special event in connection with Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art—High Art and Low Country: A Friend-Raiser with Jonathan Green, Friday, September 5, 2008, from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia.

The evening begins at 6:00 p.m. for FoAAA members—special meet and greet with the popular Gullah artist. It is followed by a lecture by Green in the first-floor auditorium at 6:30 p.m., and a low-country boil and live music on the second level overlooking the Savannah River at 7:00 p.m. The dress is low-country casual, and the cost is $35 for FoAAA and Morris Museum members and $50 for nonmembers. Please RSVP to 706-724-7501 by August 29.

“Both FoAAA members and the Morris Museum staff are thrilled to bring nationally renowned artist Jonathan Green back to the museum, especially in conjunction with such an important exhibition as Landscape of Slavery,” noted Lauren Powell, membership services coordinator at the Morris Museum of Art. “Through this friend-raiser we hope to expose more of the community to African American art and to expand both the knowledge of and membership in the museum’s Friends of African American Art (FoAAA) affiliate group.”

Friends of African American Art

The Friends of African American Art is one of four affiliate groups at the Morris Museum of Art. The group’s mission is to “learn more about this important, developing aspect of the Morris's collection through a rich variety of educational programs and travel opportunities while promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of the contributions of African Americans to the culture of the South and participating in the growth of the collection.” For information on joining FoAAA, please e-mail lauren.powell@themorris.org.

Jonathan Green Biography

Considered by many art critics to be one of the most influential and important painters of the Southern experience, South Carolina native Jonathan Green conveys a sense of time and place in each of his works. Green’s artistic interpretation of Gullah culture and African American life in the coastal Southeast has earned him critical acclaim and a loyal fan base. Although Green may take poetic license with his low-country subjects, they reflect an authentic understanding of Gullah tradition. Informed by a deep appreciation of African, Haitian, and symbolist art, Green often utilizes color as a symbolic and emotional element. Since earning a bachelor of fine arts degree at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1982, Green's work has integrated and recorded essential elements of American culture comparable to that of other master artists such as Edward Hopper, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence. Recognizing his outstanding and extensive documentation of Southern culture and traditions in his work, the University of South Carolina in 1996 awarded Green an honorary doctorate degree in fine art.

Morris Museum of Art

Founded in 1985, the Morris Museum of Art is the oldest museum in the country that is devoted to the art and artists of the American South. The museum’s permanent collection, which holds approximately five thousand paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures, dating from the late eighteenth century to the present, is displayed in galleries dedicated to antebellum portraiture, the Civil War, genre painting, still life, landscape, Southern impressionism, contemporary painting, and works on paper. It is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., and on Sunday, noon–5:00 p.m. For more information about the Morris Museum of Art, visit our web site at www.themorris.org or call 706-724-7501.