Opening today, Monday, February 16th through March 20th, with an open house on Saturday, March 27th from 11:00am until 3:00pm, David Lusk Gallery Nashville presents For Lucia, Series by internationally renowned photographer, William Eggleston.

Comprised of twenty-three never shown archival prints, For Lucia, Series offers a rare look into Eggleston’s former stomping grounds in the Mississippi Delta. Taken in the 80’s and printed in the early 90’s, each print captures Delta imagery while exuding a metallic-like surface and slick sheen.

Guided by a neutral, ambivalent gaze, Eggleston’s images are known for monumentalizing everyday subjects. In For Lucia, Series he expertly captures a quintessential view of the rural south, documenting everything from abandoned buildings to roadside signs and liquor stores. Within the compositional frame, each element carries equal and emotional weight, a key element to the signature observational style he describes as “democratic.”

The title of the exhibition, For Lucia, references Lucia Burch, Eggleston’s long-time mistress and collaborator. Remembered as tumultuous affair, as told to the writer Richard B. Woodard, Eggleston stated, “Lucia and I have shot at each other several times. She once aimed a .410 shotgun at me. Those pictures  of mine on the walls aren’t there just because she likes them. They’re covering up bullet holes, some of them.” The daughter of a social activist lawyer, Burch was thought to be an important muse of Eggleston, as stated by Mary Lindsay, “She was a blazing talent. She really pushed him past his greatness.”

Largely credited with legitimizing color photography as a fine art form, William Eggleston has inspired generations of photographers, artists and filmmakers through the course of his fifty-year career. As Sofia Coppola stated regarding his influence on her debut feature, The Virgin Suicides, “It was the beauty of the banal details that was inspirational.”

William Eggleston is a native Memphian with international recognition. He attended Vanderbilt, Delta State University and the University of Mississippi. His work has been the subject of many exhibitions around the globe, from New York to Paris, London to Sydney. In 2004, he received the International Center for Photography Award and Getty Images Lifetime Achievement Award. He is featured in the collections of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Morris Museum, Augusta, GA; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; and the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, among others.

David Lusk Gallery is located at 516 Hagan Street in the Wedgewood-Houston (WeHo) neighborhood of Nashville.