Honoring Nature: Early Southern Appalachian Painting
October 24, 2025 - May 23, 2027 | Rankin Galleries
The mountains of Southern Appalachia have long offered artists compelling subjects. Honoring Nature: Early Southern Appalachian Painting brings together expansive mountain vistas, intimate woodland scenes, and depictions of rural life by artists who visited, returned to, or made their homes in the region during the early and middle decades of the twentieth century.
The exhibition traces connections between Southern Appalachia and wider artistic communities, including Brown County, Indiana, and the urban centers of Chicago and New York. Through varied approaches to color, atmosphere, and form, these painters interpreted the region’s landscapes while developing relationships with fellow artists and local communities.
Those encounters had lasting consequences. Summer programs at Wildacres, near Little Switzerland, North Carolina, and painting classes in Burnsville, North Carolina, made the mountains a place of artistic study and exchange. Friendships and mentorships helped shape the development of art institutions in Western North Carolina. Following these connections, Honoring Nature explores how an attraction to the landscape contributed to the region’s cultural life.
This exhibition expands upon Honoring Nature, organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Andrew Glasgow. Portions of the exhibition text have been adapted from Glasgow’s writing for the original presentation. Both exhibitions have benefited from the research of Barry Huffman and Steve Cotham and generous loans from Barry and Allen Huffman.
