Southern/Modern

"Of the many strengths of Southern/Modern, a daring and revisionist show about the American South . . . the one that follows you out to your car is the alternate history of modern art it proposes. . . . This is a model exhibition: a targeted provincial study of the innovations we too often associate with Paris and New York.—New York Times

“A rich book [that] makes the case that modernism flourished in the South despite less recognition then and systemic exclusion since. . . . In a big sense, Southern/Modern is more than an aesthetic story. It is proof of alternate stories in the South.”—Clarion-Ledger/Hattiesburg American

“A fantastic guide, Southern/Modern may be one of the first publications to underscore the connections artists held to both the South and each other, producing a fuller accounting of southern art from 1913 to 1955 than currently exists.”—Jennifer Jankauskas, curator of art, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

“Whether 'rediscovering' or encountering southern modernisms for the first time, readers of this valuable volume will find a welcome diversity of visual expressions shaped—even haunted—by place and identity.”—Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Bringing together an exceptional group of historians, Southern/Modern enriches the understanding of America and American art during the pivotal first half of the twentieth century.”—Barbara Haskell, curator, The Whitney Museum of American Art

“This much-needed compendium—demonstrating the complexities of custom, race, gender, and geography—admirably and vividly parses a usually overlooked, dismissed, or ignored region of artistic activity in the United States.”—Lowery Stokes Sims, 2021–22 Kress Beinecke Professor, The Center, National Gallery of Art