The South in Black and White:
The Works of James E. Routh Jr., 1939-1946

James Routh, Cotton Farm, 1946

Exhibition Dates: July 20, 2009 through October 2, 2009

Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2009 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM

The Museum is proud to present The South in Black and White: The Works of James E. Routh Jr., 1939-1946 from July 20 through October 2, 2009. Organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, this landmark exhibition of James Routh's work contains prints and drawings of images gathered on his travels throughout the South during the Depression.

The closing reception will be at the Museum on Thursday evening, September 17, from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. Parking is ample, free, and secure.

James Routh was born in New Orleans in 1918 but grew up in Atlanta. Routh graduated from Oglethorpe College, now Oglethorpe University, and then studied at the Art Students League in New York. Routh then applied for a Rosenwald fellowship to fund his proposed travel through the South. He planned to gather information for a series of prints, stating that he wanted to "paint a number of pictures concerned simply with scenes of everyday life in the South."

This exhibition contains the images that resulted from Routh's travel in 1940 and 1941 as a result of the fellowship. Routh sketched as he traveled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana during the hard years of the Depression, then later created prints and paintings from those drawings.

In 1940, the rural Georgia that Routh observed was dominated by the cotton industry. Even as early as the mid-19th century, Georgia's soil revealed signs of the damage cotton cultivation and its associated agricultural practices had created, and Routh's images document this damage as well as the impoverished state of the South during the Depression.

Routh's prints also capture agricultural scenes that have been lost in the urbanization of Atlanta and its suburbs. Many of the landscapes in his rural images are now buried in the heart of the city.

After fighting in World War II with the U.S. Army and following a career in advertising, Routh retired in 1983 to Waynesville, N.C., where he lives today.

"Jim Routh's graphic works, which date from just before World War II, picture a world which no longer exists, a world of manual labor in agriculture and pollution and environmental degradation in industry," said Stephen Goldfarb, curator of the exhibition.

Organized by the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens with the support of the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, BNY Mellon Wealth Management, and Alfred Heber Holbrook Society members Mr. D. Jack Sawyer, Jr. and William E. Torres, M.D. Additional support is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The long awaited Changing Exhibition Gallery should contribute significantly to Atlanta's visual arts community. It promises to be an especially fine venue for paper related exhibits, with a focus on book arts, history, photography, print and the art of handmade paper. Support for the construction of this outstanding new space has been provided by the Mead Witter Foundation, with additional funding from private donations.

For more information, contact Cindy Bowden at 404-894-7840 or send an email.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS (Subject to change.)

Thanks to special funding from the Mead Witter Foundation and other donors, we have expanded our changing exhibit space.

The South in Black and White: The Works of James E. Routh Jr., 1939-1946
July 20, 2009 – October 2, 2009
The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum will present the exhibition The South in Black and White: The Works of James E. Routh Jr., 1939-1946 from July 20 through October 2, 2009. Organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, this landmark exhibition of James Routh's work contains prints and drawings of images gathered on his travels throughout the South during the Depression.

Washi: The World of Japanese Paper, Photographs from the Sukey Hughes Collection
October 15, 2009 – January 28, 2010
In conjuction with the Friends of Dard Hunter Annual Meeting.

Friends of Dard Hunter Juried Exhibition
October 16, 2009 – January 4, 2010
Open in the Neely Room of the Georgia Tech Main Library.

Click here for more information on upcoming exhibits at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum.