Kentucky Artists – Kentucky Visions, Gifts from the Anna and Allan Weiss Collection

MAY 10, 2024 – ONGOING

Kentucky Gallery

Kentucky Artists – Kentucky Visions shares, for the first time, generous gifts from the expansive, Kentucky-focused collection of Anna and Allan Weiss, both natives of Louisville. For over forty years as collectors, Anna and Allan have been passionate advocates for many Kentucky artists and their work. In Allan’s words, artists often “became my friends” with their works of art becoming “part of my life with them.”

Anna and Allan’s direct connections with artists came, in part, from Allan’s travels through eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian region during his professional career. This led to close friendships with the artists Edgar Tolson (1904-1984; Wolfe County), Carl McKenzie (1905-1998; Wolfe County), and Evan Decker (1912-1981; Wayne County), all of whom are represented in this installation.

Remarkable work abounds from other artists, too. Louisville’s Marvin Finn (1913-2007) was inspired to create a playful wooden bulldozer, one of several sculptures inspired by the heavy machinery he encountered during his working life. From Lexington’s LaVon Van Williams Jr. (born 1958) we experience bold, energetic sculptures that pay homage to jazz musicians. The Weiss’ interest in women artists is represented by works by Lucy Diecks (1907-1998; she was Allan Weiss’ high school art teacher), Mary Spencer Nay (1913-1993), and Mary Alice Hadley (1911-1965), a trio of influential Louisvillians who helped invigorate and shape the visual arts in Louisville from the 1940s through the post-World War II decades.

Collectively, the works featured in this installation range across time—the earliest dates to the 1880s and the most recent to 2012—and reach from eastern Kentucky to the central part of the state. Throughout, we see how each artist responded to various influences—themes of faith, place, popular culture, music, and nature—and how each creatively manipulated various materials—wood, clay, paint—to achieve their expressive ends. The result? A concise slice of Kentucky’s artistic diversity.

Exhibition Season Support By
Cary Brown and Steven E. Epstein
Debra and Ronald Murphy
Sociable Weaver Foundation