February Issue 2001
Charleston - Art Center or Tourist Destination?
by Jane Grau
"Being in Charleston makes you feel good,"
visitors say. More specifically, they wax enthusiastic about the
weather ("Pleasant!"), the setting ("Spectacular!"),
the buildings ("Romantic!"), the history ("Interesting!"),
the food ("Oh, wow!"). Certainly they mention the shopping
and the art galleries ("Boy, have things changed in the last
five years! They're all over the place!").
So Charleston is a great place to visit and, according to its
burgeoning population, to live in, too. Judging from its success
on both counts, offering millions of people good feelings is no
small thing. And judging from the cities I've seen lately whose
economies are based on that principle, there's a strong connection
between feeling good and buying art.
For example, in Scottsdale and Kennebunkport galleries abound
as they do in Charleston. That they survive and multiply indicates
that somebody's spending money on arts and crafts. If local media
covers arts-related activities in which residents and tourists
alike participate, like last November's Charleston Fine Art Dealers
Association (CFADA) Fine Arts Weekend in Charleston; if it's the
home of museums like the Gibbes as well as commercial galleries;
if exhibiting artists like Linda Fantuzzo choose to live in the
region; if school children are exposed to a variety of art "in
the flesh;" if the Chamber of Commerce promotes culture and
city leaders support it; and if people journey there specifically
to see, not forts and boats but art, one might conclude that a
city's cultural base is sound and legitimate.
Because it possesses some, if not all, of these attributes, Charleston
might rightly be considered an art center, which for the sake
of this article I'll define as a place where people go to immerse
themselves in a profound aesthetic experience (specifically, a
visual one). To that end, the CFADA guide invited attendance at
openings, a plein-air demonstration on the Battery, and a lecture
by Andrew Schoelkopf that brought guests up to speed about art
and the internet. The purpose of the weekend was to promote the
"Soho of the South" as an exciting venue for "talented
artists" and their "incredible work" -- mostly
paintings of creeks, herons, surf and patios. The commercial galleries
made good on this promise by exhibiting only pretty, impressionistic
cityscapes and intense, expressionistic Lowcountry landscapes,
the better for tourists to take home some good feelings and hang
them on the wall. Based on their visual impact, you couldn't tell
one gallery from the next.
Judging from these shows, the art people buy
in Charleston is not about transformation, where images expand
to embody all manner of ideas and passions, or about transportation,
where viewers experience a reality heretofore unknown to them.
It's about nostalgia and sentimentalism. "Charleston art"
is about the good feelings the city gives to tourists, which they,
in turn, pay good money to get, which goes to make the city what
they want it to be (in Scottsdale it's cowboys, in Kennebunkport
it's rocky shores). It's about a few people who paint, more or
less well, scenes limited in emotion, concept or innovation but
who can make a generous living doing so.
There are indeed some very fine artists for whom the atmosphere
of South Carolina is as inspirational as Tuscany and who can make
a Palmetto palm reach out and grab you in the gut. If you want
to surround yourself in positivity rather than polemics, with
images that speak more to the heart than to the mind, then this
kind of art is for you.
Then there's the Spoleto poster competition, which invites artists to get under the tan, supple skin of this beautiful city to reveal, in highly creative and imaginative ways, its hidden complexities.
But where do sophisticated art collectors who live in Charleston fit in? Decorating with "Charleston art," which replicates what they see outside their windows every day, would be redundant. Overkill. So do they have to go out of town to find good "real" art?
In a word, no. They can find abstract and contemporary work in many of the galleries (Jerald Melberg and Eva Carter are two) -- buried among conventional Charleston images and styles.
And what about artists more interested in envelope-pushing and edge-cutting than capturing the play of light on Two Meeting Street's veranda? Can they find studio space at a reasonable cost or is development pushing them out of town, too? Can they find kindred spirits in a city described as a bucolic haven? Can an artist who doesn't paint souvenirs make a living in the city? To be valid, a city's cultural life must support, economically and spiritually, its creators as well as its consumers.
My answer to both questions: Who cares? Charleston is Charleston, don't try to make it something it's not. If you want to see great art, get on a bus to New York. If you want to buy it, hire a limo to get you there. If you want to make it, throw not your pearls before swine -- move to the Soho of the North.
On the other hand, even if all the galleries
sell are souvenirs, they're classy souvenirs. It speaks well for
its leaders that the unique elegance and grace of historic Charleston
have withstood both hurricanes and hordes of outsiders.
But there's more to Charleston than just pretty scenery. There's
a mystique reminiscent of what, two centuries ago, must have been
an extraordinarily rich and raucous economic and social climate.
Hints can be found, not in art galleries, but in the exotic aromas
you meet on every corner (spices, horses, mud), the uncommon textures
underfoot (cobblestones, bricks, sand), and the eyecatching roofline
overhead (spires, gables, mansards). In short, Charleston is a
masterpiece.
Jane Grau is a freelance writer living in
Charlotte, NC. She has been a visual arts reviewer for "The
Charlotte Observer", "Creative Loafing", and "The
Arts Journal". This article was offered as an observation
on a weekend trip to Charleston for the CFADA Fine Arts Weekend.
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