MOCA GA / Calendar

Continuing our year-long celebration, marking 25 years since the signing of MOCA GA’s articles of incorporation and 501C3 status, we look back at our mission and collecting initiatives.  Over the years MOCA GA has been favored by wonderful supporters who have donated or purchased work for the permanent collection.  In doing so, we have had opportunities to collect works by a number of artists in depth.

One very important Georgia Artist of which MOCA GA is proud to have a significant number of works is James Herbert, a filmmaker and painter who taught both mediums at the University of Georgia for 45 years!  Two of his paintings, Windmills, 1978 and Spirit Man, 1992 were part of the founding collection and upon retiring from teaching in 2006, the Artist himself donated an early work on paper titled Pyramid Scheme, from 1973. Between 2013 and 2020 MOCA GA received eight additional works from a number of donors.

Collecting initiatives that span an artist’s entire oeuvre or simply bridge a number of years, give more robust insight into an artist’s development with regard to style, process, and themes.  Additional archival acquisitions such as collateral exhibition materials, statements, reviews, sketchbooks and correspondence serve to deepen our understanding of an artist’s intent as well as the public’s perception at a particular moment in recent history.  In early 2003 for example, MOCA GA’s Film/Video: Georgia exhibition included a viewing of an early film by James Herbert in conjunction with artwork.

Image above: Detail of James Herbert’s Whirling Man, 1999, Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 91.5 inches, Gift of the Artist