"This illustrated book, cosponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Tennessee Historical Society, covers the varieties of art in Tennessee in five parts. The visual arts and architecture section includes chapters on vernacular and high style architecture, sculpture, painting and photography, while the section on craft arts celebrates folk arts such as woodcraft, silversmithing, pottery, and textiles. The section on Tennessee's rich literary history includes such writers as James Agee, Robert Penn Warren, and Evelyn Scott, while the performing arts are represented by a wealth of storytellers along with two centuries of stage history. Finally, Tennessee is home to - and originator of - much of the music that we know as distinctively American. Contributors to the music section examine gospel, blues, rock, soul, and, of course, country music."--BOOK JACKET.

Surveying the history of aesthetic expressions from the earliest Native American populations to the most significant artists of our own times, the Art of Tennessee exhibit, running from September 13, 2003, through January 18, 2004, at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, includes approximately 250 of the most extraordinary examples of paintings, sculptures, furniture, quilts, pottery, silver, maps, and other forms of art created throughout Tennessee or that relate to Tennessee. Contributors to the exhibition catalog: Chase Rynd, Ben Caldwell, Robert Hicks, Mark Scala, Jefferson Chapman, Wendell Garrett, Ann Wells, Jonathan Fairbanks, Tracey Parks, Rick Warwick, Samuel Smith, Steven Rogers, Elizabeth Ramsey, Candace Adelson, Jim Hoobler, Estill Curtis Pennington, James Kelly, Marsha Mullin, Dan Pomeroy, Jack Becker, Celia Walker, John Wood, Michael Hall, Leslie King-Hammond, Susan Knowles, Amy Kirschke, and Lynn Ennis.

This pioneering study has been meticulously assembled through extensive fieldwork throughout Tennessee. Lifestyles of Tennesseans prior to 1850 ranged from mountain cabins to plantation mansions and the furnishings were designed to accommodate either setting. Here is a variety of desks, bookcases, and secretaries; sideboards, presses, cupboards, dressers, wardrobes, bureaus and bedsteads; sugar chests and cellarets; candlestands and shaving stands and washstands; cradles, bed steps, chairs, benches, sofas, and tables in dozens of sizes, uses, and names. Featuring many pieces from private collections never before documented, The Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture chronicles the originality of design and decoration, the choices of woods, and the simplicity and sophistication that signifies "made in Tennessee." The authors consider sources of labor, location of shops, volume of production, and marketing techniques. Just as important, the authors have conducted exhaustive research into the identities of Tennessee artisans and the furniture industry, and the book includes a checklist of 1,400 furniture makers working in Tennessee prior to 1850. This will be the definitive study for years to come.

This stunning, colorful, and vastly diverse art collection showcases 100 paintings of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by contemporary pop artist Tennessee Loveless. Explore Tennessee's fascinating methodology: a story about the power of art, overcoming obstacles, and following your dreams. When he was growing up in the southern United States, Tennessee Loveless didn't know that he was so different from other children in his grade school class. Then one day, he and his classmates were asked to choose a purple object in the room. Everyone else seemed to find this an easy task, while Tennessee slumped down, paralyzed with fear. He couldn't do it. His teacher picked him up, at which point he started crying. Tennessee's parents were called; tests were done; and Tennessee was diagnosed with limited achromatopsia, which is the state of being almost completely color-blind. Tennessee's inability to distinguish most hues has, if anything, made him obsessed with the formation of patterns, objects, and shapes. Early on, he became attracted to the destruction of white space and captivated with the idea of filling in anything lacking in form with a pattern. Later, he learned in color-theory books what hues complemented or contrasted each other appropriately and went on to develop his own numerically based color indexing system. In creating his Mickey Mouse art collection, Tennessee uses bold colors and patterns to evoke an immediate visual impact. He is driven by his passion for painting people, iconic images, and his own visual iconography in a way that strikes an emotional and nostalgic connection through command over the one thing he is blind to: color.

This new book brings to life the material-culture heritage of southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. In Backcountry Makers, Betsy K. White expands on her previous study of the region's rich decorative arts legacy, Great Road Style, to offer a closer look at the individual artisans responsible for the diverse works that constitute that legacy. Beautifully illustrated with some 230 photographs, most of them in color, this volume includes biographical sketches of seventy-five makers—potters, weavers, spinners, quilters, embroiderers, cabinetmakers, metalsmiths, clocksmiths, gunsmiths, and artists—who worked in the region from the earliest eighteenth-century settlement days to the late twentieth century. The entry for each artisan is accompanied by one or more images of a signed or marked work, or, in a number of instances, an unmarked work with certain provenance. These vignettes offer a fascinating glimpse of the people behind the various pieces, describing their background, family life, and where they learned their trade. Using census records and other documentary evidence, White has traced the earliest of these artisans from their origins in such places as Europe and Philadelphia down through the Great Valley of Virginia to their ultimate destinations in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. Along with the photos displaying the products of their craftsmanship, the book also includes a number of evocative images of the artists and their homes and towns, thus giving the reader a fuller sense of the region where these gifted people lived and worked. One of the few studies to addresses handmade objects in this locale—and one of the even fewer works to focus on the artisans themselves— Backcountry Makers will be of great value not only to scholars of material culture and the arts in Appalachia but also to those who collect regional antiques and crafts and want to know more about the individuals who made them.

A celebration of the antebellum decorative arts of Tennessee, this volume depicts 20 historic homes that have retained their original furnishings. Each entry includes a brief history of the home's construction and occupants, detailed descriptions of its decor, and naturally lit color photographs.

One of the most exuberant move palaces of the South, the Tennesse Theatre is a Jazz Age spectacle, a glimmer of a brifely extravagant era, a bold architectural celebration of an astonishing and suddenly popular new form of art. The motion picture changed the way Americans experienced their world,within its broad region, the Tennesseee became the superlative venue for that experiences. Despite its reputation as the finest, the most expensive, the theater with chandeliers and original art and antiques in its lobby, the Tennessee was also the largest, the busiest, and the most popular...Exclusiveness is one of the Tennessee's most effective illusions. After almost a century, the Tennessee is still obligatory on any trip to Knoxville, one of these sights you have to witness at least at once. Designed with dozens of shapes and countless colors to awe, it is distinct in appearance from every other theater in the world. It's a complex and fascinating artifact. But the Tennessee is also a practical edifice, a modern venue for classical music, opera, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and dozens of other genres that benefit from the old theater's excellent acoutiscs, praised in the national media for the quaility of its sound.

Get ready to experience the Music City with this guide of one of the most culturally and historically rich cities in the Southeast. Whether you're a local or a tourist, this guide will come in handy. Enjoy 11 walking and driving tours around Tennessee's historical capital of Nashville. Explore the legendary Music Row and the famous Ryman Auditorium. Discover fascincating facts about Nashville's past - from the battlefields to the universities. Carefully researched and exceptionally written by accomplished historian James Hoobler, who is senior curator of art and architecture at the Tennessee State Museum and former executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, this book offers extraordinary insight into Nashville's heritage. It is a wonderful companion, both for visitors and for Nashville residents who want to see their hometown in a new light.