Holding Ground: The Art of Gary Ernest Smith

Bys: Hagerty, Donald J. and Northland

The figure of a rancher or farmer pausing for a moment's rest, his face obscured by the shade of a wide-brimmed hat, or the rows of plowed earth advancing over a hill: these images capture what is for Gary Ernest Smith the essence of America's foundation. Like the work of regionalists Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry, Smith's paintings and sculpture call for the preservation of American values on a national scale. Widely collected from coast to coast, his work celebrates the relationship between the land and its inhabitants and the strength that is derived from that relationship.Gary Ernest Smith depicts a rural America that is slowly being displaced by urban development, an agrarian way of life that is viewed with increasing nostalgia and the land as a place to get away. Smith is holding ground, reminding us that the farm is not an incidental part of our history, but an essential element of who we are. In his insightful book, Donald J. Hagerty discusses the artist's life and work while reflecting on the transformation of rural American life through the powerful symbolism in the art of Gary Ernest Smith.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873587464
• ISBN13: 9780873587464
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Northland Publishing
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 5.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 11.8" x 12.5"