Photo courtesy: University of Mississippi Museum
The University Museum’s newest exhibit allows viewers to see through the eyes (or lens) of the man who is considered “the father of color photography.”
‘The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston,” is a photography exhibit on display until January. The exhibit’s name was pegged by the curator of the collection, novelist Megan Abbott.
Abbott, a former John Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the university, said the title was inspired by the Albert Einstein quote, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.”
“Once you start looking at [the photographs], you can’t stop,” said Abbott, whose own work was influenced by Eggleston’s photos.
The exhibition provokes feelings of home, Southern culture and society. The Memphis native’s photographs are an examination of the rugged South, but at times also transport the viewer to unexpected places like the movie set of “Annie” and eateries like Taco Bell. The photos stir feelings both for wonder of new things and nostalgia for the old. His choices of framing and subjects are striking.
The photographs are illuminated on an aubergine wall, keeping the viewer’s focus on Eggleston’s vivid portraits of experience, reality and history.
Eggleston is a long-celebrated American artist. His work was introduced on a greater stage in 1976, when the Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed his color photographs. John Szarkowski, the curator of that exhibit featuring 75 of Eggleston’s photos, called his work “existential and descriptive; these pictures are not photographs of color, any more than they are photographs of shapes, textures, objects, symbols, or events, but rather photographs of experience, as it has been ordered and clarified within the structures imposed by the camera,” according to a MoMA press release.
Museum Director Robert Saarnio and collections manager Marti Funke said many of the photographs on display have never been featured in any exhibit before. Some photos are adorned with small written descriptions from Eggleston, making the photos feel untouched and rare.
This exhibition is a peek into the film-dominated past of photography for a generation attuned to digital photography and “iPhone-ography.”
“I think any opportunity to exhibit Eggleston’s work is a glorious thing, and it brings great honor and deserved prestige to the museum,” Abbott said. “And, as a university museum, it’s great to introduce new generations to Eggleston.”
The museum has had the photos since the late 1980s to mid-’90s. Saarnio said the works were donated by William R. Ferris, founder of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The opening reception of “The Beautiful Mysterious” is Thursday from 7 – 8 p.m. at the University Museum. The event is free and open to the public. The museum will host two panel discussions with Abbott, Ferris and other panelists from the literary and art worlds who will look into the influences, history, evolution and experiences of Eggleston’s body of work on Friday from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
Abbott said she hopes people will leave feeling roused by Eggleston’s work.
“I hope they are inspired, provoked and moved,” she said. “I know they will be.”
