Aphorisms & Verses

Works from the GMoA Collection by Ben Shahn and Marvin Saltzman

November 15, 2024 - January 3, 2025 | West Wing & Commons Galleries

Opening in November 2024 at the Greenville Museum of Art (GMoA), Aphorisms & Verses: Works from the GMoA Collection by Ben Shahn and Marvin Saltzman explores intersections of visual and literary art through a focus on inspiration, collaboration, and emotional evocation in the artists’ work. The West Wing Gallery will feature lithographs by 20th-century social realist artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969) from his 1968 For the Sake of a Single Verse series, which was inspired by Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. The Commons Gallery will feature two series of serigraphs by Chapel Hill, NC-based artist Marvin Saltzman (b. 1931), including the 1963 Paint the Window Purple portfolio (made in collaboration with poet Ronald Bayes) and the 1970-75 Chapel Hill Gravel portfolio (made in collaboration with 5 different poets). Aphorisms & Verses includes creative opportunities for audiences to interact and engage with the displays. All three sets of prints come from the GMoA Permanent Collection.