[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 23894-23895]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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 CELEBRATING THE PUBLICATION OF EARLY ART AND ARTISTS IN WEST VIRGINIA

 Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise today to address a 
subject very close to my heart. Not long after my wife, Sharon, and I 
settled in West Virginia, my father presented me with a wonderful 
painting of the Kanawha River by Frederic Edwin Church, one of 
America's greatest nineteenth-century landscape painters. Thoroughly 
delighted with the painting, I became curious to know more about West 
Virginia's art history. What I discovered was a rich and varied 
tradition of artists, musicians and authors. Indeed, we in West 
Virginia have much to be proud of in the fields of fine art, music and 
literature, as well as theater, dance and architecture.
  However, there has persisted a distinct lack of documentation of West 
Virginia's artistic tradition. That is, until now, with the publication 
of the groundbreaking book, Early Art and Artists in West Virginia. 
Compiled and narrated by Dr. John A. Cuthbert, in cooperation with West 
Virginia University Press, this book is the first of its kind. This 
wonderful compendium finally establishes a foundation upon which we can 
begin to explore the history of art in West Virginia, and examine the 
important contributions the state has made to the world of fine art.
  Dr. Cuthbert offers us a richly illustrated explanation of the 
development of portrait and landscape painting, as well as lesser 
genres in the state. He has also compiled a directory of nearly one 
thousand artists who are a part of this special history, providing both 
teachers and scholars with an invaluable tool for further study. From 
the many visiting and native artists who worked in the panhandles in 
the early nineteenth century, to the members of the Hudson River School 
who delighted in the state's virgin forests several decades later, all 
are present in this remarkable volume.
  The lovely portrait of Sophie B. Colston that graces the book's cover 
is

[[Page 23895]]

but a sample of the caliber of their work. Set in a landscape that 
every West Virginian will recognize, this masterpiece by Berkeley 
County's William Robinson Leigh suggests the underlying message of this 
book--that sophistication and elegance have long been a part of the 
state's celebrated mountain folk culture.
  Since receiving Church's study of the Kanawha River from my father, I 
have continued to be intrigued by the fine art inspired by and produced 
in my adopted state. Few American communities the size of Charleston 
and Wheeling can boast symphony orchestras as accomplished as those 
found in these cities. Rebecca Harding Davis, Melville Davisson Post, 
Pearl S. Buck, Davis Grubb and Jayne Anne Phillips are but a few of the 
West Virginians who have contributed to the great canon of American 
literature. This uplifting part of our heritage deserves to be much 
better known. Early Art and Artists in West Virginia is a remarkable 
contribution toward this end. Thank you, John Cuthbert and West 
Virginia University Press, for this wonderful and important 
book.

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