If You Go
WHATWilliam J. Glackens and Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Affinities and Distinctions. The exhibition features more than 50 works by two recognized artists of Impressionism and explores the connection between these two artists.WHENOn view June 22 through September 22, 2019Museum hours and other visitor information available at huntermuseum.orgWHEREHunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View Road, Downtown ChattanoogaHOW MUCH$20 per person during the run of the show. Admission is free for Hunter members and youth 17 and under
Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. To read more, visit timesfreepress.com/150years.
"For in this spot will center your art culture for Chattanooga and the surrounding area."
Eleven-year-old Gracie Stout was seeing the Hunter Museum of American Art and the building her late father designed for the first time Wednesday morning. She was there with her mother, two brothers, grandmother and uncle.
Randall Stout designed the 2005 wing of the Hunter, which opened as part of the May 2005 unveiling of the Chattanooga Waterfront. Stout died of cancer in July 2014 at the age of 56.
"We've all been here several times, except Gracie," said grandmother Gloria Stout, who lives in Knoxville, where her late son went to college. "She needed to see it and we enjoy coming here so much. I remember the dedication and the excitement around the building. The people were amazing."
The family moved inside the building Randall Stout designed and ran into Virginia Anne Sharber, executive director of the Hunter.
"I didn't know we were having VIPs today," Sharber said.
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Ruth Holmberg was publisher of the Chattanooga Times from 1965 to 1992, and her passion for the Hunter Museum of Art is well documented. She was a director emeritus of the Hunter, which will celebrate its 67th birthday on July 12.
Sharber remembers.
"She loved this place, she truly loved this place," said Sharber, who worked with Holmberg at the Community Foundation, ArtsBuild and on a public art committee appointed by former Mayor Bob Corker in 2001. Holmberg died in 2017. "She was a driving force behind building the quality of the art collection at the museum, and she was instrumental in us pulling the trigger on the 2005 building.
"Ruth was always around, especially when she lived right down from the museum. When her health started to decline, I would still see her here in her wheelchair, big smile on her face. She was the one who was always talking about getting 'the Hunter off the hill" and more accessible to downtown. She wanted everyone to have a chance to experience the Hunter.
"Everyone who was here remembers the rainbow the day the family held the celebration of life here. The family walked out on the terrace, and there was this magnificent rainbow reaching from GPS across the river. It was like Ruth was smiling down on us."
Holmberg's Chattanooga Daily Times (16 pages, 5 cents), as well as Roy McDonald's News-Free Press (16 pages, 5 cents) covered the opening of the George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art on July 12, 1952. The gallery rested on top of a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River that was first built as a home for prominent insurance broker Ross Faxon in 1905.
The home was sold to Anne Taylor Thomas in 1920. Thomas was the widow of Benjamin F. Thomas, one of the founders of the world's first Coca-Cola bottling plant. His nephew, George Thomas Hunter, lived with and worked for his uncle from the age of 17, and he inherited the family fortune. Hunter founded the Benwood Foundation in 1944, and the foundation was a primary beneficiary of Hunter's estate following his death in 1950. In 1951, Benwood gave the mansion to the Chattanooga Art Association and funding to convert it into art galleries.
Three days before the opening, the afternoon News-Free Press ran a three-column picture on page 10 showing a piece of art from the National Gallery of Art arriving at the museum. An article detailing Saturday's events was written by Mai Bell Conley, who was better known as Mai Bell Hurley during her decades as one of Chattanooga's top civic leaders before her death in 2015. She wrote:
"Masterpieces were going up today in the George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, readying the Chattanooga Art Association's exhibition halls for their formal opening Saturday."
The Daily Times followed suit on Thursday morning with two pictures showing two galleries of art displayed and ready for the opening. "LOAN OF PAINTINGS LARGEST YET MADE" was the main headline on the story. "Display for Exhibit Here Is Most Extensive Ever Sent" was a secondary headline.
Both papers were consumed with the first nationally televised political convention in the country's history. World War II war hero Gen. Dwight Eisenhower would be nominated for president on Friday, July 11, and more than half of each paper's front page carried convention-related stories. You could buy a tire with a "12-Month Ironclad Road-Hazard Guarantee" for $10.95 at Western Auto and bath towel for 45 cents at Eckerd's Drug Store.
Coverage of the museum opening came on July 14, the Monday following the Saturday event. It made the bottom of the Daily Times' front page. "Hundreds See Varied Art Collection on Public Display in Hunter Gallery" was the headline above a story written by art critic R.F. Siemanowski, who said the crowd "registered fascination and delight at the varied and excellent collection of paintings and prints."
The story continued, "The tastefulness of the loan showing, the simple efficiency of the gallery's staff and operations, should give one high hopes for the success of this further venture." It also dedicated 13 of its 16 paragraphs to detailed artistic language that, perhaps, only the "hundreds" who attended understood.
Siemanowski wrote, for example, "It is in Gallery E on the second floor, however, that the artists of the most significant departure in painting since the 'revival of learning' have their brief splash."
The "society page" was a complete reversal. There, the Times' editors ran a story with more than 150 names under a lengthy story titled, "Among Those Present."
The afternoon News-Free Press went with a straight news report inside the newspaper of the opening, again written by Conley. She said, "An adventure in culture began at 10 Bluff View Saturday evening as several hundred formally attired Chattanoogans walked from room to room in the mansion of the late George Thomas Hunter admiring and studying a collection of masterpieces gathered by the Chattanooga Art Association.'
The story contained a quote from David E. Finley, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., that foreshadowed the museum's future path. " 'This is a very important occasion in the cultural life of Chattanooga,' David Finley said in describing the gallery opening. 'For in this spot will center your art culture for Chattanooga and the surrounding area.' "
"We are pleased today that the Hunter Museum of Art is a strong asset in our community and continues to be the cultural heart of our great city," said Sarah Morgan, president of the Benwood Foundation. "I know that George Hunter would be proud, as is the Benwood Foundation."
More than 88,000 people visited the Hunter in 2018, according to Cara McGowan, director of marketing and communications. Just over 13,000 visitors were 17 years old or younger, and the museum has 1,753 college memberships. Traffic has increased since the opening of the Ruth and Bill Holmberg Bridge in 2005. The bridge connects the Hunter and the Bluff View Art District developed by Dr. Charles and Mary Portera to the Chattanooga Waterfront.
The museum's outreach activities include a unique partnership with the University of Tennessee College of Medicine where 150-200 residents develop observation skills by viewing art and then discussing it with colleagues. The museum, which operates on a $3 million budget largely funded by an endowment and private donations, also initiated an outreach to black professionals in 2018 and today hosts bi-monthly meetings with more than 100 in attendance.
The Hunter has a permanent collection with more than 3,000 pieces, and Sharber said its the quality of the art that sets the Hunter apart for museums in markets the size of Chattanooga. The Hunter's latest exhibition, "William J. Glackens and Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Affinities and Distinctions," opened Saturday. Both Sharber and McGowan say the art community has difficulty saying one art museum is better than another.
"When people come here who know a lot of about art, they are amazed at the caliber of the collection, the depth of the collection and surprised that an institution this size would have as many representative works of art as we do," said Sharber.
An example of art at the Hunter that demonstrates the collection's status are works by Grant Wood. He is the artist of "American Gothic," the famous picture of a farmer standing next to his wife with a pitchfork in his hand.
"You can look at it this way," said McGowan. "The Whitney Museum in New York did a solo exhibition with Grant Wood, who did American Gothic. The exhibition was covered by everybody in the art world. They borrowed one of our works for that show and to me, that is a great example of how the Hunter has essential works of art by major artists. Other institutions trust us."
Sharber said the mission of the Hunter and its role in Chattanooga has always centered on putting quality American art in front of as many people as possible.
People like Gracie Stout, who shaded her eyes as she gazed upward Wednesday at the massive entrance to the museum her father designed.
"It's great," she said.
Contact Davis Lundy at davislundy@aol.com.