About the Exhibition
21c Museum will host a solo exhibition of works by Kentucky artist Dan Dutton as part of its upcoming Ballads of the Barefoot Mind exhibit. The display will highlight the artist’s collection of ballad stories, sounds and images.
The Ballads of the Barefoot Mind exhibit will open on Friday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m. at 21c Museum with an impromptu performance by Dan Dutton. He will also present a concert at 21c on Saturday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m., where the artist will record 12 of his ballads. The concert will also feature special guests Atwater-Donnelly, Cari Norris, Susan Alcorn and Mark McCoy. Throughout the weekend, Proof on Main restaurant at 21c will offer a prix fixe menu inspired by the lyrics of Dutton’s ballads.
Following the opening weekend events, 21c Museum will also host a special concert on Wednesday, November 8 at 2:00 p.m. The performance, “Ballads Between Life and Death,” is held in conjunction with Louisville’s Festival of Faiths, and refreshments will be provided by Proof.
Dutton’s exhibit features 12 large-scale oil paintings of ballad scenes which former Whitney Museum of Art curator Lawrence Rinder described in the catalog essay as “monumental and epic.” Accompanying the large paintings are 12 ink and watercolor images from Dutton’s repertoire of 36 ballads, sound recordings and live performances.
In the 1980s Dutton was commissioned to create video installation art for the J.B. Speed Museum in Louisville and to create an opera premiered by Kentucky Opera at the Center for the Arts in 1990. During the 90s, Dutton composed, designed, and directed a cycle of four dance operas in collaboration with and broadcast by Kentucky Educational Television. KET’s video documents are still used by the public school system in Kentucky, and part one of the opera was nominated for an Emmy. For more information on the works of Dan Dutton, go towww.dandutton.com.
