Appalachian Regionalism: Reimagining Modernism on the Periphery of American Art

“Appalachian Regionalism: Reimagining Modernism on the Periphery of American Art,” defines and contextualizes the distinctive regional contributions of Appalachian culture to American art production. To further diversify the range of art historical study, my dissertation proposes that from the mid nineteenth to mid twentieth century Appalachian art exhibited distinctive traits that suggest a regionally specific application of modernist principles that include the mixing of high and low forms of art, the embrace of regional flora and fauna, a reaction to environmental exploitation, and a spiritual kinship to the mountains, evidenced in modes of artwork that might otherwise circulate separately including local craft, work by self-taught creators, and academically trained artists. This scholarship fills a void in American art historical scholarship by recognizing a myriad of larger systemic issues like the division of art and craft, unequal valuation of modes of skilled labor, and differing access to artistic opportunity based on class and longstanding stereotypes of the region. In this way, my research complicates conventional narratives of regionalism by examining how the centralization of fine art practice in east coast urban areas has eclipsed the vibrant practice of kinship-based modes of learning and creative production and how Appalachia’s history of ecological and environmental degradation and systematic exploitation of cheap wage labor and resource extraction has resulted in regional poverty and the devaluing of local culture. Since Appalachian regionalism remains undefined within the field, my dissertation draws upon scholarship related to regionalism, craft, folk art, critical race and whiteness studies, Marxist theory, and ecocriticism. In the wake of revisionist histories that seek to be inclusive to marginalized peoples and misunderstood cultures, this project explores the importance of Appalachian regionalism and makes the case for its addition to art historical scholarship.