Exhibition - Of God and Country: American Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection

This exhibition is devoted to works by artists who are typically labeled as “outsider artists,” often marginalized or excluded from traditional narratives of art history. Exploring their work within wider themes of religion and what it means to be American, the exhibition looks at the nation’s landscape, beliefs, and fraught history with race and racism. At times critiquing and celebrating aspects of American life, the works reflect a deep engagement but profound ambivalence toward the present, as well as faith and optimism for the future, in this life or the next.

Featured are works by James Castle (1899–1977), Josephus Farmer (1894–1989), Rev. Howard Finster (1916–2001), William L. Hawkins (1895–1990), S.L. Jones (1901–1997), Elijah Pierce (1882–1984), Purvis Young (1943–2010), Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900–1980), and others, reflecting a broad range of media, size, and style. One section devoted to American landscape encompasses landscapes, scenes of rural life, and domestic animals, while another section, dealing with US history, examines the legacy of slavery and the civil rights movement. Two additional sections, devoted to spirituality and mortality, include works evoking religion, death, and the afterlife, and suggest open-ended interpretations and conclusions.

The works are drawn from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, including gifts, promised gifts, and loans to the museum.

Locations: Jane and Leonard Korman Galleries and Jaimie & David Field | Marie & Joseph Field Galleries (152–155)