A List
4/14/03

SELF-TAUGHT AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART EXHIBITED IN SLU GALLERY

CANTON - An exhibition resulting from a St. Lawrence University 
senior's internship at a Chicago art gallery and an independent 
study course, titled "To Whup Up On Sin": African-American Self-Taught 
Art, will be in the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery on campus from April 
17 through June 7. An opening reception with the artists whose work is 
in the exhibition will be held on Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m. in 
the gallery.
	Matthew W. Whitehead, a senior from Chicago, was an intern at 
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago during 
the summer of 2002. He says, "While there, I conducted research at a 
desk between two cavernous galleries and across from what I soon 
discovered was a black-box theatre for performances, screenings and 
lectures. Given the size of the place and the scope of Intuit's programs, 
I was surprised at how little I knew about this stuff. How did it 
correspond to other art forms I had studied in art history courses?"
	The exhibition, the result of independent study undertaken 
this spring by Whitehead, includes 15 drawings, paintings and sculptures 
by six 20th-century African-American artists. "Typically labeled 
visionary, divinely inspired or obsessive, these artists have had no 
formal training and have worked outside of traditional institutions 
like museums and commercial galleries," Whitehead says.
	For more information or to arrange individual or group tours, 
contact the gallery at 315-229-5174.

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