The Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) is an art

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

located in

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

. Its collections focus mainly on American art, and its holdings include works by

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, ...

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

(raised in South Carolina),

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City a ...

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...

Ronnie Landfield Ronnie Landfield (born January 9, 1947) is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction (related to Postminimalism, Color Field painting, an ...

, Helen Turner,

Mary Tannahill Mary Harvey Tannahill (January 11, 1863 – June 21, 1951) was an American painter, printmaker, embroiderer and batik maker. She studied in the United States and Europe and spent 30 summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with the artist colon ...

Eric Fischl Eric Fischl (born March 9, 1948) is an American painter, sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman and educator. He is known for his paintings depicting American suburbia from the 1970s and 1980s. Life Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on s ...

, Marylyn Dintenfass, and Leon Golub. Southern American and South Carolina-based artists, such as

Henrietta Johnston Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (c. 1674 – March 9, 1729) was a pastelist of uncertain origin active in the English colonies in North America from approximately 1708 until her death. She is both the earliest recorded female artist and ...

, are also represented.

History

In 1963, the

South Carolina General Assembly The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and t ...

established the

Greenville County Greenville County is located in the state of South Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 525,534, making it the most populous county in the state. Its county seat is Greenville. The county is also home to the ...

Museum Commission. The art association acquired its first permanent home with the purchase of the Gassaway Mansion in 1958. In 1974 GCMA moved into its

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

building. The new building is almost 90,000 square feet for spacious exhibition galleries, a museum shop, art storage, a 190-seat auditorium, and classrooms for studio instruction. In 1973 the

American Association of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

accredited GCMA and renewed accreditation in 1986 and 1998. In 1985, the Museum refined its collections policy to focus on creating a comprehensive survey of American art using southern related examples. In 1995 the GCMA published a book, ''The Southern Collection'', which includes 126 essays about 146 different works in the collection. The Greenville County Museum of Art is one of 55 museums in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

fully accredited by the Alliance of American Museums, a rigorous benchmark. The American Alliance of Museums awarded accreditation to the Museum first in 1973 and subsequently renewed accreditation in 1986, 1998, and 2009.

Exhibitions and collections

The museum is nationally known for three collections: the Southern Collection, a survey of American art using southern-related examples; ''

: The Greenville Collection;'' and a collection of contemporary art unrivaled in the state. The museum's “Southern Collection” explores the breadth of American art and history through the Southern experience from the colonial era to the present. Among the highlights are a group of pre-Civil War vessels created by African-American potter and poet

David Drake David A. Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now a writer in the military science fiction genre. Biography Drake graduated Phi ...

, a collection of

American Impressionism American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...

, and an array of works by 20th-century masters like

Georgia O’Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...

, and

. The GCMA is home to an important collection of

works by South Carolina native African-American artist William H. Johnson. The museum boasts individual works by such twentieth-century masters as

George Bellows George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realism, American realist painting, painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art ...

, and

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

. The collection includes 92 works by

, 68 by

Stephen Scott Young Stephen Scott Young (b. 1957 Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American artist best known for his watercolor paintings and etchings that depict everyday life on the east coast of the United States and the Out Islands of The Bahamas. Often painting genre sc ...

, and 87 by

. The GCMA is home to the largest and most complete collection of Wyeth watercolors owned by any public museum in the world.

himself wrote in a letter dated March 6, 1998, “The Greenville County Museum now has what I consider the very best collection of my watercolors in any public museum in this country”. By virtue of a tax millage, GCMA operations are supported by Greenville County, while program support comes from private sources. In 2021, the museum sparked controversy when it deaccessioned the

Alma Thomas Alma Woodsey Thomas (September 22, 1891 – February 24, 1978) was an African-American artist and teacher who lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and is now recognized as a major American painter of the 20th century. Thomas is best known for t ...

painting ''Alma's Flower Garden'', selling it in a private transaction to an unidentified buyer for $2.8 million. The museum had purchased the painting in 2008 for $135,000. Jonathan Walz, a curator of the upcoming national Alma Thomas exhibit in which the painting was to be included, said "It’s particularly important that Alma Thomas’ work, as the work of an African-American artist, be available for the public to see," and "If it has gone into a private collection, that’s devastating." Arts writer Lee Rosenbaum criticized the sale as opaque, and depicted it, with similar sales by other museums, as a "professionally misguided strateg of selling important works—among their highest-valued, by price, popularity and/or art historical importance—to reap the most money for current spending priorities, while leaving big holes in their collections."

Exhibitions

* Sundays at 2: Family Art Adventure – Mar 17, 2019 * Third Thursday Tour:

Grainger McKoy Grainger McKoy (born in 1947) is an artist who draws inspiration from the dynamics of bird behavior. He is best known for his wood sculptures but also produces jewelry and gifts. History Victor Grainger McKoy was born in North Carolina in 1947. Aft ...

– Mar 21, 2019 * Sundays at 2: Music in the Galleries – Mar 24, 2019 * Sundays at 2: Music in the Galleries – Mar 31, 2019 *

Andrew Stevovich Andrew Stevovich ( ; born 1948) is an American painter. He is best known for oil paintings and pastels that combine abstract formalities with a figurative narrative. He has also produced lithographs, etchings, and wood-block prints. Biography ...

: February 5, 2020 - March 17, 2020 *

Arnold Mesches Arnold Mesches (August 11, 1923 – November 5, 2016) was an American visual artist. Bio Arnold Mesches was born in 1923 in the Bronx, New York and was raised in Buffalo, New York. Mesches moved to Los Angeles in 1943 on a scholarship at the Art ...

: How Does Your Garden Grow? - March 27, 2019-September 15, 2019 *

William de Leftwich Dodge William de Leftwich Dodge (1867–1935) was an United States, American artist best known for his murals, which were commissioned for both public and private buildings. Early life and education Dodge was born at Bedford County, Virginia, L ...

James Earl James Earl (May 1, 1761 – August 18, 1796) was an American painter and younger brother of fellow portrait painter Ralph Earl. He was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, and died of yellow fever in Charleston, South Carolina. He lived and worked ...

, Howard White McLean, Ralph E. Earl, and

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was born ...

: Persons of Interest – February 28, 2019-September 15, 2019 *

: More Than Meets the Eye – November 21, 2018-June 9, 2019 * Mike Solomon: Sentient – February 9, 2019-April 7, 2019 *

, William H. Johnson, and

: Art and Artists of South Carolina – June 13, 2018-Present.

Visiting GMCA

Although Greenville County taxpayers support the museum's operations and building maintenance, no public funds are provided for art purchases. The Greenville County Museum of Art is open Wednesday through Saturday.

References

Art museums and galleries in South Carolina Buildings and structures in Greenville, South Carolina Museums in Greenville County, South Carolina Museums of American art Tourist attractions in Greenville, South Carolina {{SouthCarolina-museum-stub

History

Exhibitions and collections

Exhibitions

Visiting GMCA

See also

References