True Colors:
Meditations on the American Spirit
Jamie Wyeth Study for September
11th , 2001
Combined mediums on paper mounted on board 18" x 22"
Collection of the Artist
About the exhibition:
True Colors: Meditations on the American Spirit has been organized by Meridian International Center in Washington, DC as an artistic response to the tragedy of September eleven. Inspired by artists themselves and seen by Meridian as a meaningful way to put the events into perspective, both for an international audience and for ourselves as Americans, this exhibition is a meditation on some of the qualities that made our nation able to respond to and recover from September eleven.
The sixty-eight participating artists are from different parts of our vast country. No one was left untouched by these events. Many from Washington or New York witnessed the attack from their windows or lost friends, studios and a portion of their life's work. Others far away from Ground Zero watched the intense media coverage and felt just as passionate about giving artistic voice to their feelings.Many artists made new work directly related to the attack; others found that works previously made now resonated in profound ways and took on meanings heretofore unintended or unimaginable. The result is a kind of visual poetry about the beauty of our land and the human qualities that enabled our nation to bear, gain perspective, overcome and move on.
True Colors first visited Washington, DC and New York City, two symbolic locations of both the devastation and the recovery of September 11th. The exhibition has toured domestically and internationally - since September 2003, True Colors has visited Berlin, Germany, Portadown and Belfast in Northern Ireland, Tirana, Albania, and most recently Bratislava, Slovakia. Originally scheduled to close in May 2004, the True Colors tour has been extended indefinitely due to the uninterrupted interest expressed by numerous museums and galleries and as the exhibit's relevance still remains. Meridian is grateful to the sponsors and supporters of this exhibition for their partnership in making True Colors possible. It is our hope that this collection of artistic reflections can communicate something of the true spirit of America to areas of the world where we are not always well understood. At the same time, it will provide American viewers with an opportunity to meditate on those qualities that make our nation great.
Comments or questions email nmatthew@meridian.org