From the Potomac to the Gulf, artists were creating in the South
even before it was recognized as a region. The South has
contributed to America's cultural heritage with works as diverse as
Benjamin Henry Latrobe's architectural plans for the nation's
Capitol, the wares of the Newcomb Pottery, and Richard Clague's
tonalist Louisiana bayou scenes. This comprehensive volume shows
how, through the decades and centuries, the art of the South
expanded from mimetic portraiture to sophisticated responses to
national and international movements. The essays treat historic and
current trends in the visual arts and architecture, major
collections and institutions, and biographies of artists
themselves. As leading experts on the region's artists and their
work, editors Judith H. Bonner and Estill Curtis Pennington frame
the volume's contributions with insightful overview essays on the
visual arts and architecture in the American South.