BATON ROUGE — The LSU Museum of Art is opening a new exhibition this fall showcasing Southern art and literature.

"Southern Gothic: Literary Intersections with Art from The Johnson Collection" runs Oct. 1 through Jan. 3, 2027. It draws from the holdings of The Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as well as Louisiana institutions and private collectors. Southern Gothic is often described as a mood rather than a strict genre, blending horror, romance, decay, spirituality and dark humor.

The exhibition was originally put together as a collaboration between The Johnson Collection and Wofford College, also in Spartanburg. It looks at how artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries used visual language to capture the tension between the South's idealized image and its historical realities.

The museum said the exhibit is inspired by the writings of William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Tennessee Williams and Toni Morrison. Their themes show up across painting, printmaking and sculpture in the form of evocative landscapes, charged domestic interiors, allegorical scenes and portraits that hint at psychological depth and social complexity, the museum said. 

For this showing, the core group of artworks has been expanded to reflect Louisiana's cultural environments, layered histories and enduring traditions. Works from The Johnson Collection are placed alongside pieces from the LSU Museum of Art's permanent collection and loans from the Louisiana State Museums system, the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University, the Roger Houston Ogden Collection and collector Jeremy Simien.

The Johnson Collection was founded in 2002 and has grown to more than 1,400 objects spanning multiple centuries. The organization focuses on tracing the cultural evolution of the American South and elevating historically under-recognized voices through exhibitions and publications.

Exhibition funding was provided through the Parish America 250 Mini Grant, supported by the State of Louisiana and administered by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the Louisiana Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the America 250 Louisiana State Commission.