Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library is currently hosting a major exhibition that brings together, for the first time, the lives and work of three Georgia-born artists: painter/illustrator Benny Andrews and writers Flannery O’Connor and Alice Walker.
“At the Crossroads with Benny Andrews, Flannery O’Connor and Alice Walker,” located in the Schatten Gallery on Level 3 of Emory’s Woodruff Library, is open to the public and runs through May 18, 2024.
Andrews (1930-2006, from Plainview), O’Connor (1925-1964, from Milledgeville) and Walker (1944 -, from Eatonton) all emerged from small towns within a 50-mile radius of each other in middle Georgia. Although they moved away from Georgia to pursue their education and lives in other states, their archival papers reside together in the Rose Library.
The exhibition draws its inspiration and materials from those three collections and from O’Connor’s short story “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” The three artists are connected through this story, first published in 1961 and later illustrated by Andrews and addressed by Walker in her short story “Convergence” and her essay “Beyond the Peacock: The Reconstruction of Flannery O’Connor.” O’Connor’s story offers a deep critique of white Southern racism as revealed through a racialized encounter on a bus between two pairs of mothers and sons.
“While each of these artists is internationally known through their writings and art, few in the world have had access to them through their archives,” says Jennifer Gunter King, director of the Rose Library. “Thanks to the thoughtful work of the curators, the exhibit is as much about the artists as it is an opportunity to reflect on the factors that shape our own worldviews, and how we respond to our worlds through the choices we make and the art we create. All ages will be inspired and challenged by the exhibition, and we look forward to the robust engagement and conversations the exhibition invites.”
Developing “At the Crossroads”
Curators for the “At the Crossroads” exhibit include the following for each featured artist:
- Benny Andrews: Tina Dunkley, artist, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum curator emerita and author of “The Merikins: Forgotten Freedom Fighters in the War of 1812”
- Flannery O’Connor: Rosemary M. Magee, Rose Library director emerita and “Conversations with Flannery O’Connor” editor, and Amy Alznauer, author of the children’s book “The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor”
- Alice Walker: Nagueyalti Warren, Emory University African American studies professor emerita and author of “Alice Walker’s Metaphysics,” and Gabrielle M. Dudley, Rose Library assistant director of public services
The idea for the exhibition emerged in 2019 when Joseph Crespino, Emory’s Jimmy Carter Professor of History, and Pellom McDaniels III, then-Rose Library curator of African American collections, shared Andrews’ illustrated, limited edition book with Emory undergraduate students. The two imagined how impactful it would be to display the volume in an exhibition setting. Though McDaniels passed away in April 2020, that original vision informs this exhibition.
Through the objects on view, visitors will gain a sense of the artists’ creativity, personalities, complexities and worldviews through their work and personal letters.
Among the items in the exhibition are:
- Childhood and family photos, sketchbooks, drafts and original finished artwork from Andrews’ extensive career; selections from his personal writings and journal entries; and personal memorabilia, including correspondence and invitations to gallery openings;
- Never-before displayed materials from O’Connor’s papers, including childhood drawings and writings; literary drafts and manuscripts of her short stories and her novel “Wise Blood;” private letters with friends and colleagues; and intimate personal items such as her passport, rosary beads and a prayer book; and
- Walker’s teenage scrapbook filled with poems, clippings and photographs; images of Walker and her friends and family members from her time in Georgia, New York, Mississippi and California; selections from her earliest magazine and short story writings to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Color Purple;” and a handmade quilt and other artifacts from her life.
Emory Libraries’ exhibition team was charged with designing this thought-provoking exhibition, drawing on the curators’ scholarship to demonstrate how these three different artists’ work intersected.
“This exhibition, by its subject matter, scope and complexity, has challenged us,” says exhibitions manager Kathy Dixson. “Multiple people have been involved in bringing this project together in its final form. I’m confident that their amazing work will impress and inspire audiences — from people who have never read a book by O’Connor or Walker or viewed an artwork by Andrews, to those who have researched their lives and works extensively.”
