‘Hot Cold Cool’ chronicles decade of many changes in art, society

The striking exhibition “Hot Cold Cool” at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis packs a punch.

The display of four fine-art print portfolios from AMUM’s collection tracks a landmark decade of turmoil — 1964-1973 — that shook the world, transformed society and changed art itself.

Not only are there works by some of the world’s most acclaimed artists, but the collections also have been largely invisible since they were acquired years ago.

“We’ve got all of this cool stuff in our collection that hadn’t been widely seen,” says Leslie Luebbers, director of AMUM.

There are works by Andy Warhol, Louise Nevelson, Red Grooms, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein, among many others.

“In thinking how to link the portfolios in a thematic way,” Luebbers says, “I came up with Hot Cold Cool,” and the title nicely sums up key elements of that decade.

“Hot” refers to art protesting the war in Vietnam. “Cold” alludes to the Cold War. “Cool,” meanwhile, represents changes in art from apolitical postwar Abstract Expressionism to works that fiercely took a stand.

“The view that art shouldn’t tell stories was a convenient stance in the era of McCarthy,” Luebbers says. But in the 1960s, “stories needed to be told, and artists like Robert Motherwell did that. Then Warhol came along, and he was the new cool.”

The dozens of prints in the exhibition chronicle the fierceness of change.

“Ten Works x Ten Painters,” published in 1964, reflects a time when the war in Vietnam was accelerating, the civil rights movement was in full flower and the Beatles were transforming popular culture.

The portfolio includes minimalist silkscreens by Stella, Ellsworth Kelly and Ad Reinhardt. There are also the emerging Pop artists like Warhol, Lichtenstein and Robert Indiana riffing on consumerism and Madison Avenue.

The 1967 portfolio “American Artists and Writers Protest the War in Vietnam” shows how some artists were mounting an in-your-face challenge to society and government.

Some artists (Reinhardt and Carol Summers, for example) did pieces unlike their regular work. Others, like Nevelson, did their own work that didn’t necessarily have anti-war imagery, but did contribute to the effort.

“Ten Lithographs by Ten Artists” in 1971 was created in sup- port of the unusual Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. These diverse works are by either alumni or faculty of the program, started in the 1940s by artists (and still governed by artists).

These artists, including Grooms, Philip Pearlstein and Philip Guston, were instrumental in opening mainstream art to a wider array of styles and philosophies.

The fourth and largest portfolio is 1973’s “World Print One: Folio Seventy Three San Francisco: World Print Council.” These 20 international prints are particularly interesting in context of the times.

Travel and correspondence were severely limited between countries in the Soviet sphere and the rest of the world. But print exhibitions were one of the few ways in which artists in both realms could share work and ideas. The shows would travel around the world, and in the midst of the Cold War, the exhibitions were considered “cool” in that the pieces generally avoided overt political criticism.

While “Hot Cold Cool” is showing in the main gallery area, two other remarkable exhibitions are on display nearby.

“Jan Hankins: 11 Septembers” is a fiercely political installation of painting and sculpture in the ArtLab gallery. And “By the Fire of Satire: Russian Propaganda Prints” shows plenty of wit in the Soviet campaign against corruption and waste. Both run through Nov. 21.

NEW ART SHOWS

ANF Architects, 1500 Union Ave.: Martha Kelly and Elizabeth Alley, through Nov. 29. Opening reception 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday. Call 901-2786868. anfa.com. Artreach Gallery, 2075 Exeter Road-Suite 40 (Exeter Village), Germantown: Paul Edelstein: “Paintings,” through Nov. 30. Opening reception 5:30-8:30 p.m. Friday. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; and by appointment. Call 901-759-9119. artreachgallery.com. DeltaARTS Gallery (Suite 14C), 1800 N. Missouri, West Memphis: “Mid-Continent Landscapes”: New works by Betsy Brackin, through Dec. 18. Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Thursday. Work inspired by artist’s recent travels and observations in Greece, Montana and the Delta. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. 870-732-6260. deltaarts.org/wp. Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 3339 Park: “Fire and Desire: A Passion for Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century,” through Jan. 20. In celebration of the Warda Stevens Stout Collection of 18th century German Porcelain. Opening lecture 2 p.m. Sunday by associate curator Julie Pierotti. Call 901-761-5250. dixon.org. Gallery Fifty Six, 2256 Central: “Autumn Group Exhibition,” through Dec. 1. Artists’ reception 5-8 p.m. Friday. New works by Paul Clarke, Jan Hankins, Mary Stubbs, Bryan Blankenship, John Armistead, Niles Wallace, Steve Crowe, Emery Franklin, Art Covington, David Douglas, John Sosh, Joyce Garner. Open noon-4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday or by appointment. Call 901-276-1251. galleryfiftysix.com. Gallery Fifty Six, 2256 Central: Contemporary Crafts Open House opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Thursday. Artists: Bryan Blankenship and Lisa Hudson, ceramics; Lisa Butts and Pat Cavanaugh, jewelry; Carol DeForest, dinnerware and small scupltures; Niles Wallace and Jen Winfrey, ceramics; Gwen English, handmade books, leather. Special gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 9-10. Call 901-276-1251. galleryfiftysix.com. Gallery Ten Ninety One, 7151 Cherry Farms, Cordova: Hillary Butler: “Near and Far: Churches from All Around,” through Nov. 30. Opening reception 2-4 p.m. Sunday. Original oil paintings. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 901-458-2521. Harrington Brown Gallery, 5179 Wheelis Drive, Suite 102: Artists exhibiting through Dec. 4: Clay Enoch, sculptor; Charley Ivey and Scott Upton, paintings. Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Friday. Call 901590-3008. harringtonbrown.com. Java Cabana, 2170 Young: “Art in Autumn,” folk art by Comecha Stewart-Martin, through Dec. 6. Opening reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Call 901-272-7210. Levy Gallery (Buckman Performing & Fine Arts Center at St. Mary’s School), 60 Perkins Ext.: “Explorations”: New works by Paula Kovarik (art quilts) and Dorothy Northern (jewelry), through Dec. 14. Opening reception 5:307:30 p.m. Friday. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday; or by appointment. Call 901-537-1483. buckmanartscenter.com. David Lusk Gallery, 4540 Poplar in Laurelwood: Rana Rochat: “New Paintings” and “You Shoulda Been There: Snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Collection,” through Nov. 24. Opening 6-8 p.m. Friday. Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Call 901-767-3800. davidluskgallery. com. Material, 2553 Broad: “Recent Conglomerations,” work by Chicago artist Jordan Martins, 6-8 p.m. Friday. Call 901-219-1943. jordanmartins.com. Palladio Antiques & Art, 2169 Central: Emily Ozier and Paul Edelstein Art Show. Preview reception, 5-7 p.m. Thursday. Call 901-276-3808. David Perry Smith Gallery, 703 New York: “Out of Darkness,” an exhibition of new works by three abstract painters — Alex Walter from Germantown, Martica Griffin from Nashville, and Melissa Payne Baker from Atlanta; on view through Nov. 28. Opening 5-8 p.m. Friday. Call 901-606-9690. davidperrysmithgallery.com. L Ross Gallery, 5040 Sanderlin (Suite 104): Margaret Munz-Losch: “Beauty and the Beast,” through Nov. 30. Opening reception honoring the artist, 6-8 p.m. Friday. Call 901767-2200. lrossgallery.com. Southside Gallery, 150 Courthouse Square, Oxford, Miss.: Laurin McCracken: “Watercolors” and Estelle Faulkner: “Oil Paintings,” through Nov. 24. Artists’ reception 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday. Call 662234-9090. southsideartgallery.com.