Bearing Witness: Visual Elegies by Walter Anderson & Jason Bouldin

ISBN-10: 057899433X
ISBN-13: 9780578994338
Series: Bearing Witness
Language: English
Published: 2021-12
Author: Mattie Codling

Description

Bearing Witness: Visual Elegies by Walter Anderson & Jason Bouldin explores themes of death, remembrance, and rebirth through the lenses of art and the Southern land. The catalogue features artworks by Mississippi artists Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) and Jason Bouldin (b. 1965). These artists, one passed, one living, have been inspired by the artistic tradition of nature morte, or "dead nature." Selected works by Anderson made in the mid-twentieth century are positioned in dialogue with Bouldin's contemporary meditations, which include still lifes of decayed arrangements and intimate portraits of dead birds, a mouse, a rabbit, and other creatures. Accompanying the full-color reproductions are essays, commentary, and interpretation by the artists and contributing authors.Anderson and Bouldin have encountered mortality in their art in much the same way as they have in life; through animals and plants, the deaths of which have intersected with the artists' paths and shattered the boundaries between vitality and decay. For them, art making is a testament to something deeply felt and truly seen. Through painting, the dead live on.