Visual arts consultant and arts writer Susan Knowles calls Memphis “the liveliest arts scene in the state.” Carol Stein, owner of Cumberland Gallery in Green Hills, envies the city’s “strong museum system, which gives its galleries more credibility” than Nashville’s.
On all accounts, it would appear that Memphis has an edge on Nashville when it comes to the visual arts. The academic art community of Nashville has long cast a covetous eye toward the masters in fine arts program offered at the University of Memphis, as well as the degree programs offered at the Memphis College of Art—the state’s only independent art college. And who in Music City hasn’t been a little jealous of Memphis’ Wonders Series, which has hosted such blockbuster exhibitions as “Catherine the Great” and “The Imperial Tombs of China”?
All that admiration, however, has engendered little tangible exchange between the cities’ visual arts communities. Works by Memphis artists are rarely seen in Nashville galleries and vice versa. Nashville and Memphis gallery owners have only a passing acquaintance with each other. Museums in both cities infrequently loan works to each other for temporary exhibition. It’s no wonder, then, that Nashvillians are generally in the dark about the visual arts scene in Memphis.
While Nashville anxiously awaits completion of Cheekwood’s renovations and the transformation of the downtown post office into the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Memphis art museums keep humming along. The 22-year-old Dixon Gallery and Gardens holds major Impressionism works by Renoir, Degas, and Monet in its permanent collections, and its strong lineup of changing exhibitions includes the upcoming “Raoul Dufy, the Last of the Fauves,” June 27-Sept. 5. The Dixon also ties in a show each year with “Memphis in May,” the city’s annual international cultural festival. This year, in honor of the festival’s featured country of Morocco, the museum has an exhibit of Moroccan textiles and decorative arts on view through June 13.
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, founded in 1916, is the state’s oldest and largest art museum, noted for its permanent collections of Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings, English portraits, and European and American paintings. The Brooks also stages regular changing exhibitions, such as its current retrospective of works by 20th-century sculptor Duane Hanson, on view through June 13. In addition, the museum hosts the Brooks Film Series, with screenings throughout the year.
Both Memphis and Nashville boast dozens of retail businesses that sell art and call themselves galleries. But within the more narrow definition of a gallery—a place that schedules exhibitions every six to eight weeks and actively markets its artists to both individual and corporate buyers—there would seem to be more galleries in Memphis than in Nashville.
One of the newest is Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, which boasts some of Memphis’ top artists on its roster. Indeed, when the exhibit space opened less than five years ago, most of the city’s best and brightest visual talents beat a path to the Ledbetter Lusk door, much to the consternation of older galleries. A youthful energy and perspective apparently account for much of the gallery’s success—partners David Lusk and Baylor Ledbetter are in their early 30s. “Our gallery has a much younger slant,” Lusk admits.
Among the Memphis artists represented by the gallery are photographer Huger Foote (son of writer Shelby Foote), Greely Myatt, Freida Hamm, Veda Reed, Mary Sims, Peggy Root, and Pinkney Herbert. The gallery also represents a number of artists from nearby states and a few from outside the region, but the focus of the roster is overwhelmingly local, which may also account for the gallery’s success. The artwork also runs a wide gamut of styles. “We really can’t be pigeonholed,” Lusk says, when asked to describe the type of art for which the gallery is most noted.
While Ledbetter Lusk enjoys the highest profile at the moment, other Memphis galleries haven’t faded into the canvas. One of the oldest is Albers Gallery, which opened in 1984. Owner Kathy Albers is one of the city’s most articulate voices for the arts. “The market here has changed so much with the influx of people from other areas where the visual arts are more prominent,” she says. “It’s not yet where it should be, but it has grown, and there is much more awareness of the visual arts.”
Albers shows a few Memphis artists, but most come from outside the city. The gallery also has a strong focus on fine crafts and on abstract art. Albers says the gallery’s top artists include sculptor Julie Warren Martin, abstract artist Michael Barringer, traditional landscape painters Linda Disney and John Boatwright, and still-life artist Cora Ogden.
Other established galleries in Memphis include the Lisa Kurts Gallery, which features works by local and regional artists as well as works by nationally and internationally recognized artists, and the Cooper Street Gallery, owned by Jay Etkin, which showcases emerging Memphis and area artists.
“Our strong museum situation helps the galleries,” Albers says. “If you don’t have that, it’s harder for galleries to carry the burden of educating the public about going to see art.” Indeed, with the imminent arrival of the Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville may discover that its own visual arts community receives a significant boost. In the meantime, we can look west and gaze in admiration.
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