AURORA

DR. CHARLES SMITH: AURORA July 14, 2019–May 17, 2020

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is the steward of 218 sculptures from the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans’ Archive by Dr. Charles Smith (LA). This site is one of thirty-two artist-built environments represented in the Arts Center’s collection. Beginning in autumn of 2019, the Arts Center’s renowned collection of more than thirteen thousand pieces from artist-built environments will be moved to the new Art Preserve, set to open in August 2020.

The Art Preserve is envisioned around six guiding concepts: vernacular, autobiography and biography, process, public trust, display, and evocation. It is designed to allow visitors to experience the works in the collection on an ongoing basis rather than wait for them to be displayed in an exhibition. Several environments will be featured in tableaux, with other work displayed in curated visible storage. The Art Preserve will also be a dynamic site of discussions, interdisciplinary investigations, and workshops dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and presentation of artist-built environments.

In the spirit of experimentation, Dr. Charles Smith: Aurora is a testing ground for the concepts that will structure the Art Preserve. While on view, the exhibition will evolve as information about Dr. Smith’s work is revealed through audience engagement, interviews with the artist, and ongoing institutional investigation. It will be a laboratory, updated in real time as Dr. Smith is engaged as an artist-consultant and an active participant in the presentation of our collection of his works of art.

Works by Dr. Charles Smith in the John Michael Kohler Arts Center collections storage, 2016. Photo: Rich Maciejewski.

This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., and the Frederic Cornell Kohler Charitable Trust. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year.

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©2019 John Michael Kohler Arts Center 2019.134.3040

Six core principles structure the discussions, research methods, informational materials, approaches to display, and wayfinding at the Art Preserve. They can also be applied individually to each artist-built environment represented in the Arts Center collection as interpretive tools.

The vernacular of an artist-built environment is characterized by each artist’s access to materials and regional traditions and customs. It also encompasses the ways in which their surroundings spark personal modes of creativity. Dr. Smith’s primary purpose as an artist is driven by his desire to educate visitors to the site on the untold histories of African-Americans. It is important to him that his work be outdoors, highly visible, and accessible to all passersby. His sculptures are figural and narrative, often in memoriam and instructional. Because he places his sculptures outside, Dr. Smith incorporates the challenges of exposure to the elements into his practice. He first coats found objects and fallen branches in plaster, concrete, and a special wood-pulp substance he makes. After forming them into expressive and dynamic sculptures documenting neighbors, celebrities, and historical figures, he leaves them exposed, allowing them to decay. When he feels they have properly “weatherized,” he covers them in a final layer of his “epoxy-rubberized paint.”

Artist-built environments are deeply personal and entirely singular. It is essential to acknowledge the tension between autobiography and biography that is inherent when an institution presents artist-built environments. Whereas biography refers to telling someone else’s life story, an autobiography is one’s own account of his/her life. Dr. Smith’s work is autobiographical, meant to both express and inform, and includes his emotions and instincts. When presented in an institution, the story of the work becomes biographical and informational, based on facts collected by the museum. This exhibition bridges the differences between autobiography and biography by directly engaging with the artist to help us tell his story.

The process by which art environments are created remains somewhat of a mystery. The Art Preserve exists to uncover information about how—and why—they are built. As such, The Art Preserve is a “living” entity that will shift with new insights from the public and experts in the field. The process of eliciting new scholarship will be documented and transparent. For this exhibition, Dr. Smith serves as an artist-consultant, continually engaged to add new information about the sculptures in our collection. The gallery will be updated in real time as new information is gathered.

According to the American Alliance of Museums, “Public trust is the principle that certain natural and cultural resources are preserved for public benefit. In essence, it means the public owns the collections, and they should be kept available so the public can study them, enjoy them, and learn from them.” Because the Arts Center has the largest institutional holdings of Dr. Smith’s work, it is an enormous responsibility to honor his original intention of keeping his work visible. By showing as many works as possible in this space and offering opportunities for ongoing research, the Arts Center acknowledges its role as a steward of Dr. Smith’s legacy.

Curatorial decisions surrounding the presentation and display of artist-built environments are based on site photos, oral histories, or other supportive materials that assist in understanding the structure and intention of the original site. Some displays are exhibition-style experiences, while others function primarily as stable and secure storage. When they were in situ (in their original location), Dr. Smith’s sculptures were densely arranged and constantly changing; he would frequently move them and repaint them. This installation mirrors their original site in Aurora, Illinois, with an exhibition design that allows rearranging and reexamining the sculptures over time.

Evocation is the act of recalling the essence of the original site without falsifying it through re-creation. Some of the intangible elements of the environment are inevitably lost when the work is removed and displayed in a museum setting. Most notably, visitors lose the presence of Dr. Smith himself. Throughout this exhibition’s run, site photos, video footage, and audio recordings of Dr. Smith will be incorporated into the gallery to honor the experience of touring the site with him.

Dr. Charles Smith, (from left) Horn Player: Louis Armstrong Series, c. 1985–c. 1999; concrete, paint, and mixed media; 32 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. Rosa Parks, c. 1985–c. 1999; concrete, paint, and mixed media; 40 x 18 3/4 x 29 in. untitled, c. 1985–c. 1999; concrete, paint, and mixed media; 44 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 12 in. Issues, c. 1985–c. 1999; concrete, paint, and mixed media; 46 x 18 x 25 in. Woman with Fancy Earrings, c. 1985–c. 1999; concrete, paint, and mixed media; 36 x 18 x 10 in. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of Kohler Foundation Inc.

Dr. Charles Smith at the African-American Heritage Museum + Black Veterans Archive. Photo: Larry Harris.

DR. CHARLES SMITH: AURORA

Dr. Charles Smith, African-American Heritage Museum + Black Veterans Archive (site view, Aurora, IL), c. 1985–99. Photo: David Kargl, 1993.