Teri L Sullivan
WKNO
Promotions Manager
901-325-6518
tlsullivan@wkno.org
September 22, 2008
For Immediate Release
WKNO Presents Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude
The result of six years’ labor by award-winning writer/producer/director and University of Memphis professor Steven John Ross, WKNO presents a new two-hour documentary which chronicles the life and works of arguably the greatest American painter of his time: Winslow Homer. Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude premieres Thursday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m. on WKNO/Channel 10.
The film chronicles Homer’s artistic evolution, while also telling the story of a man who in his youth lived in the midst of a lively and cosmopolitan New York City art scene, but who gradually withdrew from public life. His work as both an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly and as a painter reveals an enormous amount about American life from before the outbreak of the Civil War, through the War itself and Post –War America up to 1880
In his mid-forties he left America and lived alone in a small English fishing village for well over a year. When he returned he built a studio residence on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Maine, and lived there for the rest of his life. By the time of his death in 1910, he was mythologized as the great recluse of American art.
Steven John Ross (Oh Freedom After While!; Black Diamonds, Blues City; At the River I Stand) is a writer-producer-director and Professor in the Department of Communication at The University of Memphis. Recipient of the Juried Award for Artistic Achievement at the 2007 University Film and Video Association Annual Conference, the film has had many invitational screenings at major museums across the country.
“Homer’s work is so easy to like at first glance that many people don’t bother to give it a closer look,” said Ross. “But, when you do look closer, I mean, really look closer, the paintings reveal layers of meaning, and layers of sheer artistic brilliance, that can blow you away.”
WKNO is presenting Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude to public television stations across the country through American Public Television.
The broadcast of Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude is sponsored locally by The Dixon Gallery and Gardens and by The University of Memphis College of Communication and Fine Arts.
WKNO is a non-profit, private foundation serving the Mid-South for more than 50 years. An important community resource, WKNO uses the power of non-commercial public broadcasting to provide the Mid-South with quality educational and cultural programs that inform, entertain, and inspire.
###
|
