Page 15 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2021

Space
“True art consists of spreading wide the intervals so that imagination may ll the space between the trees.”
– Walter Inglis Anderson
Color
It is approaching the magic hour before sunset, when all things are related, and are organized through color.
– Walter Inglis Anderson
Anderson deployed to great
e ect the science of color theory,
juxtaposing and mixing primary
and secondary colors. His
exploration of color was in uenced by his time spent in nature, and he would often enhance naturally occurring colors to create a mood or to elevate the drama of a scene. In Road to Old elds, included in the exhibition, Anderson uses blue and yellow in the tree limbs, giving an impression of green leaves.
Shape
Walter Anderson famously employed “the seven motifs,”
basic shapes he read about in Mexican art theorist Adolfo Best- Maugard’s 1930s book, A Method for Creative Design. These seven shapes are present in all ancient art forms and can be used as building blocks to render complex compositions. Anderson relied heavily on the seven motifs in the 1940s after he left the mental hospital, using them to “reteach” himself
how to draw. Anderson’s mastery of line allowed
him to quickly and expertly render expressive
shapes that he saw in the world around him,
including a variety of biomorphic shapes such as the
organic curves of ora and fauna.
WAMA opened in 1991 in historic Ocean Springs and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. WAMA’s mission is to empower lifelong curiosity and connection to the natural world through the art of Walter Anderson and kindred artists. WAMA is dedicated to the celebration of the works
of Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), American master; and to his brothers, Peter Anderson (1901-1984), master potter and founder of Shearwater Pottery; and James McConnell Anderson (1907-1998),
noted painter and ceramist.
Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), Road to Old elds, c. 1945, Watercolor on Paper. Permanent Collection, Gift of Mary Stone Brister.
Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), Contented Coon, c. 1960. Watercolor on Paper. Permanent Collection, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Purchase.
Walter Anderson explored space through his physical materials, such as the 8 1⁄2 x 11-inch typing paper that he regularly used
for watercolors, especially those he made in the barrier island wilderness of Horn Island. Often, Anderson would bend and shape his forms to t his canvas. An example is the watercolor, Contented Coon, where the animal appears to be lounging within the con nes of the page. Anderson also mastered the
use of positive and negative space, using the technique to draw the viewer’s attention to certain aspects of his subjects. This technique was also central to the process of linoleum block printing, where the artist carves out the negative space to reveal the positive. Anderson’s block prints were propagated widely. These works were intended to be accessible; created, said Anderson, for “people who cannot a ord to pay a great deal for works of art, but still have an appetite for beauty.”
Form
The realization of form and space is through feeling. When I feel the beauty of a ower on the trunk of a tree, I am at one inducted into a world of three dimensions and have a sense of form which is opposite of arti cial forms and conventions.
– Walter Inglis Anderson
Even in his two-dimensional works, Walter Anderson sought
to create a sense of a fully articulated three-dimensional world. But he also created large-scale murals, carvings, puppets, textiles, and furniture that physically occupied three-dimensional space. Anderson integrated these works into daily and civic
life, reinforcing the idea that art was not meant solely for visual stimulation, but also as a tool and companion for living.
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Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965), Blue Jay Table, c. 1933. Polychromed Wood. Gift of the Family of Walter Anderson.