7 minute read
Every Picture Tells A Story
The Frist Museum brings the art of the guitar center stage
Written by Melissa Mahanes with Frist Art Museum staff / Photos courtesy of Frist Art Museum
Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art is the first exhibition to explore the instrument’s symbolism in American art from the early 19th century to the present. Featuring 125 works of art and 35 musical instruments, the exhibition demonstrates that guitars figure prominently in the visual stories Americans tell themselves about themselves—their histories, identities, and aspirations. The guitar—portable, affordable, and ubiquitous—appears in American art more than any other instrument, and this exhibition explores those depictions as well as the human ambitions, intentions, and connections facilitated by the instrument—a powerful tool and elastic emblem.
Organized by Dr. Leo G. Mazow, the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Storied Strings explores fascinating connections and contrasts that show how guitars figure prominently in the visual stories Americans tell about themselves. Works by artists such as John Baldessari, Thomas Hart Benton, Lonnie Holley, Dorothea Lange, and Annie Leibovitz and seminal instruments by Fender, Gibson, and C. F. Martin & Company show how guitars have served as symbols of American history, cultural attitudes, identities, and aspirations. For the presentation at the Frist, notable instruments and other artworks drawn from Middle Tennessee collections are on view, reflecting Nashville’s internationally renowned status as Music City, a mecca for outstanding guitarists and socially impactful music.
The exhibition begins with “Leisure, Culture, and Comfort: Nineteenth-Century America” with exceptional examples of families and individuals enjoying and posing with guitars in home and studio settings, showing how the guitar makes its way into the home as a cultural endeavor and forms of entertainment alongside reading, writing, and art.
The section entitled “Iconic Women of Early Country Music” features photographs of Lulu Belle, Maybelle Carter, Loretta Lynn, and Kitty Wells, as well as associated objects and videos of several of these musicians in performance. Another section showcases “Cowboy Guitars”, with videos of Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, and others playing western-tinged country music in the early-to-mid 20th century. This section highlights Thomas Hart Benton’s final study for his massive painting The Sources of Country Music, a permanent fixture at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, just down the street from the Frist. This section acknowledges the origins of the cowboy look and shows its expanded legacy in today’s country by LGBTQIA+ musicians such as Orville Peck.
“The guitar’s role in giving voice to people across America is acknowledged in artworks and recordings that show the cultural impact of blues and folk music, born of the injustices, hopes, sorrows, and joys experienced by poor and working-class people, especially people of color and migrant workers,” writes Frist Art Museum chief curator Mark Scala in the exhibition’s program. “Over a third of the works in the exhibition are by Black artists or depict Black musicians. An extraordinary example is Romare Bearden’s luminous collage Three Folk Musicians (1967), which shows the merger of two worlds—the European guitar and the African banjo, a synthesis that is still at the core of much Americana music.” The social message in this section is clear— whether in Elizabeth Catlett’s I Have Given the World My Songs (1947), a searing depiction of a Black woman playing guitar in front of the scene of a lynching, or Danny Lyons’s photograph of Bob Dylan at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) office in Greenwood, Mississippi, the guitar can be seen as a symbol of resistance to an uncaring world.
From paintings of street buskers to photographs of Dolly Parton on a tour bus, the section “Making a Living” looks at how the guitar’s affordability and portability have made it the people’s instrument, allowing for a modest living or great financial success. The close, personal attachment many players have to their instrument is examined in the section “Personification,” with subjects cradling or hugging their instruments like children, lovers, or even extensions of their bodies.
Iconic electric guitars such as a 1953 Fender Telecaster and a 1958 Gibson Explorer—some of which were played by the likes of Keith Richards and Eric Clapton—shine in the section titled “The Visual Culture of Early Rock and Roll.” The real star, however, is Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock and Roll who influenced Elvis Presley and others in the 1950s; she reigns in a striking quilt by Michael C. Thorpe and a video performance installed nearby.
The final section, “Aestheticizing the Motif,” explores the inherent beauty of guitars in works like John Baldessari’s graphic set of six hand-painted print collages and Kaki King’s video performance of her song “Surface Changes,” which shows an innovative combination of musicianship and visual art for the 21st century. Storied Strings offers visitors an opportunity to explore the guitar’s cultural significance, its impact on American art, and the diverse ways it has been enjoyed and utilized by musicians and artists over the years.
Several key objects in the exhibition are on loan from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and throughout the summer, a series of programs featuring live performances and exhibition tours will be offered by the neighboring museums. Reciprocal admission for Frist and CMHoF members will be offered on select dates.
Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art / May 26-August 13, 2023
Frist Art Museum / 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203 / (615) 244-3340 / fristartmuseum.org
Hours: Monday, Friday, and Saturday 10:00am-5:30pm, Thursday 10:00am-8:00pm, Sunday 1:00pm-5:30pm, Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
