'Southern Recollections' opens Saturday

With three distinct exhibits, the Tampa Museum of Art is flashing back to the '60s. Fortunately bell bottoms and beads aren't required to enjoy them.

For the next four months, the works of three artists who flourished in the era of experimentation, pushing the limits and finding new uses for old media will be on display. Each had a strong impact on their times and are still relevant today.

The best known is Romare Bearden (1911-1988). Widely regarded as one of the most important African-American artists of the 20th century, Bearden created from recollections and memories of his childhood in the Southeastern U.S. He's a considerable talent, with music, performing arts and a variety of visual arts to his credit but this show focuses on his collages.

Aptly called "Southern Recollections," it contains 83 works in a broad range of sizes, from the exquisitely small to the strikingly large.

"The exhibit is a reassessment of Bearden and the impact he had on the entire art world as well as his role in supporting other African-American artists," explains museum Executive Director Todd Smith.

The result is that the exhibit conveys a strong sense of place, something Smith feels Floridians can relate to.

Less well-known but equally talented and prolific is Don ZanFagna. The 92-year old Charleston-based artist creates cybernetic works that attempt to explain or analyze our culture. The exhibit of 43 works is called "Cyborgs."

"They tell a kind of cautionary tale of what might happen if computers become more prevalent in our society," says Smith, who curated the exhibit, "And (they tell) how computers will have an adverse effect on humans, and humans will have an adverse effect on the environment."

Comparing and contrasting the exhibits of ZanFagna and Bearden, Smith noted, "We have two artists here who worked in and around New York City in the 1960s, both using collage, one looking back and one looking forward."

ZanFagna has been off the art museum grid for a while. TMA is one of the first museums to champion his work, the Aspen Art Museum exhibited some of his works in November 2011.

"I had the fortune to get to know him and his work through a gallery owner in Charleston before I came here," says Smith. "I was struck by the quality of his art and the way it spoke to a different idea of the way art is."

Artist John Cage (1912-1992) also spoke to that different idea. An accomplished musician, he is recognized as a leader of the American musical avant-garde. Cage experimented with unorthodox instruments and erratic musical compositions, evolving to producing performance works that often involved the audience.

One of his more famous exhibits,"33 1/3," was staged in California in 1969. Visitors were requested to select one of about 300 vinyl records to play on one of more than a dozen record players. The resulting sound occurred without criticism or laud.

TMA has recreated that "happening," and formalized it. Called "33-1/3 – Performed by Audience," the interactive exhibit also contains 12 record players and 300 vinyl discs.

The story behind the vinyl is almost as fascinating as the exhibit itself.

Curator Jade Dellinger solicited titles of vinyl albums from people who knew Cage or were involved in the Fluxus Movement of the 1960s.

"We wanted to make the records special, to reinvent the score and to honor Cage," he says,

The result was a collection that is anything but common.

James Rosenquist sent in titles of albums by Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker; Graham Nash sent in "The Music of Bulgaria"; Emil Schult, "Autobahn" from the Kraftwerk's personal collection; Yoko Ono sent in titles of her own music and that of John and Sean Lennon, while Christian Marclay sent in only red vinyl and artist William Wegman suggested of very special classical music albums.

"It's the coolest record collection in the world," said a grinning Dellinger. Organized by the name of the artist suggesting the titles, the albums will be found in bins set up in the starkly white room.

It's a silent stage now; the sounds are yet to come.

"Cage was always interested in silence," Dellinger said. "So when no one is in the room, it's silent. And if there are 12 DJs, that's going to be a different dynamic."

This exhibit could be called "Things Not Heard Before," Dellinger says, in which case it would play counterpart to the exhibit about Cage currently at Tempus Projects, in South Seminole Heights, a show Dellinger also curated. "Things Not Seen Before" runs through Feb. 5.

"SOUTHERN RECOLLECTIONS"

When: Saturday through May 6

Where: Tampa Museum of Art, 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza

Tickets: $10 adults, $7.50 seniors, $5 students, free for members and children under 6; www.tampamuseum.org