Knoxville Museum of Art

As I had never been to the Knoxville Museum of Art, this weekend was the perfect opportunity to do so. It is a convenient walk to the museum as I live in Fort Sanders and is a nice stop on the route to Market Square and the other downtown attractions. Having little interest in American art, especially modern, post-modern, etc., I was a bit wary of entering as I was afraid there would not be much that particularly struck me and make me want to write a journal entry on it. After walking through, I am pleased to say that I was very surprised at what I found.

Perhaps not at the beginning of the visit, as the museum information desk was, to put it politely, less than stellar. The young man at the desk was probably new there as he stumbled through his introductions of the museum and waited until my boyfriend and I had left to as us if we wanted to know where everything was. If there was a map available I did not see it, nor was I offered one. I can understand being new at a job but he seemed more interested in chatting with his friend than really assisting people at the museum.

Our first stop was the “Visions, Language, and Influence,” exhibition on the lower floors, featuring photographs of the South by Baldwin Lee, Walker Evans, and Eudora Welty. It was interesting to see the work of Walker Evans, as he was discussed in an 20th Century American Art class I took over a year ago. Although Knoxville often feels like a small town to me, it is nice to know that the work of internationally known artists can filter down to the KMA.

The second floor of the Knoxville Museum of Art showcases exhibitions such as “Uncertain Terrain” complied from selections from the KMA Collection. The exhibition is centered on pieces inspired by landscapes of all kinds, rural or urban, real or imaginary. The artists in the collection utilize a variety of media, such as video, painting, and drawing, to name a few. Each artist presents an interesting take on the idea of landscape painting and pushes the boundaries of a very traditional art subject. The Knoxville Museum of Art website contains a video of the exhibition and detailed explanations behind the motives of the artist. I especially like Darren Waterston's Ice and Stars, 2007 and Tomony Dodge's Mirage, 2006. Both very different, they explore two natural phenomenon that I find interesting, the Northern Lights and the blurry mirages one can sometimes see on a hot summer's day.

Across the hall is the “Higher Ground” exhibition that features a visual art history of East Tennessee through the last century. This exhibition was very interesting for me as many of the paintings featured were on loan from the Frank H. McClung Museum and have been included in inventory lists I have assisted in compiling. It was fun to pick out the paintings I have read about but never seen, such as a few paintings by Lloyd Branson such as his Hauling Marble, 1910, an important documentary painting of the flourishing marble business in Knoxville. Another of my favorite paintings in the traditional gallery was William Posey Silva, Magic Pool, circa 1924, a dreamy impressionist inspired image.


While the gallery was arranged very nicely, some of the wall additions and makeshift areas in the gallery made it difficult to navigate around people, especially if they are not paying attention to those around them, and there were close collusions with the other visitors to the museum. While the arrangement of the gallery allowed for many more paintings to be included than without, the designer of the gallery should really have thought about how people are supposed to avoid running into each other, potentially placing the paintings at risk of being jostled on the walls.


While the museum gift shop was a nice little assortment of interesting jewelry and glass art, they are a bit pricey. I understand that they have to make money someway and that a lot of the items were handmade, but is it worth it if none of the visitors buy anything or even visit the shop because it is too expensive? David L. Butler, executive director, gave us revenue information and it seems like they do well enough. I especially liked Josh Simpson's Megaplanets, as well as his other glass art for sale in the gift shop, though not for a small price. I suppose something like that it worth it and maybe if I ever win the lottery I will buy a few.

My visit to the Knoxville Museum of Art was very enjoyable but the atmosphere they have created is kind of cold and intimidating. No one was talking in the galleries because they felt like they could not but that totally ruins the point of a museum. Art is placed in museums for the public to learn from, something that cannot be achieved if the visitors are too afraid to talk. Now that the Knoxville Museum of Art has amassed a decent collection, their primary goal should be to attract visitors and make them feel welcome instead of alienating and intimidating them.