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Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art,
October 23, 2004–January 31, 2005
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Wall Text Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, “In this powerful exhibition, Judy, her collection, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art exhort us to celebrate our common ground and rediscover the sorrows and the sweetness that make us part of the human community.” — Bill Clinton This exhibition explores the concept of community and its complex web of human connections. It celebrates the universal experiences of struggle, transcendence, and redemption through the work of many notable artists from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Encompassing photography, painting, sculpture, and works on paper, Common Ground is organized around five related themes: past and present; a sense of place; community; hope and belief; and memory and tribute. How do artists define “community”? A community can be many things: a group of people affiliated through some common attachment or goal, a society, a neighborhood, a church, a political group, a club, or a family. A community might also represent a group brought together by the situations of history, whose common bonds are circumstantial rather than conditional: a nation, a state, an ethnic group, an immigrant group, or the dispossessed. There are many ways in which artists have explored the subject; as a sense of place or common ground, or as a framework that defines our bonds with the outside world, for example. As artists search for their own roots, they may also discover connections that stretch the boundaries of their work. The idea of common ground is a complicated one; what one at first assumes is a value held in common with another may be nothing of the sort. Yet in seeking shared objectives, artists have developed new ways to transcend traditional barriers. Their responsibility has not been simply to observe or document the world, but also to create from their observations new ways for us to see into universal human experiences. The Julia J. Norrell Collection is dedicated to building cultural understanding through art. Its unusual dynamics reflect her unique approach to collecting. An independent thinker, she has rejected the usual hierarchies and categories favored by the art world. Instead, the works she chooses cluster around themes and meanings that mirror her background and interests. Works celebrating southern life and culture, the cycle of life, and religious traditions provide opportunities to contemplate ideas about memory, place, and dreams, The juxtaposition of works within her collection offers a worldview that encourages familiarity with the past as a means to interpret the present. Norrell has considered our collective past and the role of her own memories and activism in seeking common ground among diverse communities. Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, Selections from the Collection of Julia J. Norrell, is sponsored, in part, by The President’s Exhibition Fund.
A 208-page book, published by Merrell Publishers, accompanies Common Ground:
Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, Selections from the Collection
of Julia J. Norrell. This catalogue is available for purchase in the Corcoran
Shop.
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