Friday, September 17, 2010

Press Release: High Museum to Transfer Art and Books to MOCA GA

ATLANTA, September 16, 2010 – The High Museum of Art recently transferred 21 works by 14 Georgia artists from its collection to The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA). In addition, the High has transferred more than 700 duplicate publications from its archives to a new reference library currently under development by MOCA GA. The publications focus on modern and contemporary art and art from around the world. Scholars, curators, art historians, educators, artists and the public will have access to this new library.

“The High is delighted to now include MOCA GA in our repertoire of international and regional collaborations,” said David Brenneman, the High’s Director of Collections and Exhibitions. “Through the transfer of these works to MOCA GA, whose mission celebrates the contemporary art of Georgia, we are excited that Atlanta and regional communities will have greater access to view and study these artists and their work.”

“This collaboration between MOCA GA and the High is significant and an important step for the arts,” said Annette Cone-Skelton, MOCA GA’s President/CEO/Director. “These new additions will fill in some major gaps for our collection, especially works by Lamar Dodd, Ben Shute, Gladene Tucker, Shirley Bolton and Ferdinand Warren. The donated publications from the High will be housed in the library of our Education/Resource Center and will join others donated by artists and collectors including Ruth Laxson and the Estate of Genevieve Arnold.”

All works were chosen by Annette Cone-Skelton in conjunction with High.

The transferred works are:

  • Shirley Bolton, Silent Strings (Jazz Series), 1974
  • Santo Bruno, Small Function, 1977
  • Larry Connatser, Untitled, 1969
  • Herbert Lee Creecy, Jr., Study, 1967, and Study, 1967
  • Lamar Dodd, Wind on the Coast, 1941
  • Lamar Dodd, Sketch for Wind on the Coast 1944
  • Lamar Dodd, The White Door, 1953
  • Lamar Dodd, At the Foot of the Blackland
  • James McRae, Untitled, 1966
  • Charles Mitchell, Prometheus Bringing Fire Down to the Earth
  • Jarvin Parks, Homage to the Four Arts
  • Robert Stockton Rogers, A View of Taxco, Mexico
  • Joseph Schwarz, Funeral
  • Benjamin Edgar Shute, Compote with Grapes
  • Howard Thomas, Reidsville, 1943
  • Howard Thomas, White House and Chickens, 1946
  • Howard Thomas, Get with Red, 1962
  • Gladene Tucker, Untitled, 1961
  • Ferdinand Warren, Garden Bouquet, 1952
  • Ferdinand Warren, Haystacks and Corn


Highlights include work by Lamar Dodd, who trained in New York and went on to become one of the most well-known twentieth-century Southern artists. Dodd’s artistic style follows the tradition of Thomas Hart Benton, and he was a faculty member at the University of Georgia. Artist Ferdinand Warren began his career creating war bond posters during World War II. After the war he continued his career as a commercial artist and became a faculty member at Agnes Scott College. Herbert Lee Creecy, Jr. was an abstract expressionist painter. Several of his works are owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia
MOCA GA was founded in 2000 out of recognition of the relative void in opportunities across Georgia to learn about and view contemporary art, and specifically contemporary art from Georgia artists. The museum opened its doors to the public in February 2002. The mission of MOCA GA is to collect and archive significant contemporary works by artists from the state of Georgia. To place our artists in a global context, the museum’s exhibitions include artists from around the world in addition to Georgia artists. The museum’s programs promote the visual arts by creating a forum for active exchange between artists and the community. MOCA GA fulfills its mission through an active exhibition schedule, a growing permanent collection and the Education/Resource Center, which houses the museum’s historical archive collection. Since its opening MOCA GA has presented 72 solo and group exhibitions focused on excellence of work, explorations of media and issues in contemporary society.

High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States. With more than 12,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High Museum of Art is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High’s media arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005 the High opened three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum’s size, creating a vibrant “village for the arts” at the Woodruff Arts Center in midtown Atlanta. For more information about the High, please visit www.high.org.

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