VERNACULAR ART from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection

Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

February 21–May 15, 2016 Tarpon Springs, Florida VERNACULAR ART from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection

Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection

Gadsden Arts Center 13 North Madison Street Quincy, Florida 32351 850.875.4866 www.gadsdenarts.org

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Photography by Ed Babcock and Roger Raepple Edited by Charlotte Kelley

Cover image: Thornton Dial Sr., Everything is under the Black Tree, n.d., paint on wood, 48 x 31.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.2 1 VERNACULAR ART from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection

Thornton Dial Sr. ARTHUR DIAL Table of Contents Thornton Dial Jr. Essays The Creative Spirit...... 5–8 hawkins Bolden Art as an Expression of Place...... 9–12 Richard Burnside Works of Art in the Exhibition ...... 13 archie Byron

Artist Biographies and Works ALYNE Harris Thornton Dial Sr...... 14–17 Arthur Dial...... 18–19 bessie harvey Thornton Dial Jr...... 20–21 Hawkins Bolden...... 22–23 Lonnie Holley Richard Burnside...... 24–25 Archie Byron...... 26–27 joe Louis light Alyne Harris ...... 28–29 ronald lockett Bessie Harvey...... 30–31 Lonnie Holley ...... 32–33 EdWARD Mumma Joe Louis Light ...... 34–35 Ronald Lockett...... 36–37 Mary Proctor Edward Mumma ...... 38–39 Mary Proctor ...... 40–41, 58 O.L. Samuels O.L. Samuels ...... 42–43 Mary T. Smith ...... 44–45 Mary T. Smith Henry Speller...... 46–47 henry speller Jimmy Lee Sudduth ...... 48–49 Mose Tolliver ...... 50–51 Jimmy LEE Sudduth Felix Virgous...... 52–53 Ruby C. Williams...... 54–55 Mose Tolliver Purvis Young ...... 56–57 felix virgous Resources Glossary...... 59 Ruby C. Williams Vernacular Art Resources...... 60 Purvis Young

3 The Creative Spirit by Grace B. Robinson

Art is our oldest and most universal language. Human beings have been making art for tens of thousands of years. Why? The great 20th century painter Georgia O’Keefe was once asked why she made art. She said, “I found that I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way – things I had no words for.”1 Indeed, art is a powerful language, with the power to express emotion, ideas, and facts simultaneously across the barriers of chronological time, culture, and verbal language.

Mose Tolliver, Golden Eagle, n.d., paint on wood, 24 x 18 inches, Gadsden Arts Like O’Keefe, the artists repre- Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.12 sented in Vernacular Art from the Gads- den Arts Center Permanent Collection seem compelled to communicate through their art. Unlike O’Keefe, these Vernacular “art” in their native language, even though the creation artists have had no formal training in drawing, painting, of decorative objects is of central importance to their or other methods of making art. They have had no formal culture. Regardless of whether or not the term “art” is education in art history, no access to commercially available used, all human beings incorporate art into their daily art materials, and no inspiration from museum and gallery lives, so much so that many of us take it for granted. visits. Yet, making art is an integral part of their everyday Some humans are also compelled to create “art,” objects lives. Many of these artists, like Mose Tolliver, Mary that are meant solely for an expressive, rather than utili- Proctor, Joe Light, and O.L. Samuels, make so much tarian purpose. What motivates them? art that their homes and yards are filled with it. Why are these artists so driven to make art? Consider the thoughts of artists working today in our own region. When asked, “Why do you create “Art” is an object that is deliberately created by art?” three basic themes emerged from their responses: a person to express an idea, emotion, or experience. the artist’s ability to communicate more completely Many artists in Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts through visual expression; the positive psychological Center Permanent Collection have created decorative or effect experienced by a person who makes art; and expressive objects for decades without ever referring to the desire to capture, preserve, and share with others them as “art.” Many human cultures pass on traditions something that the artist values. of creation over generations – making unique paintings, quilts, or pottery, for example – but have no word for 5 The Creative Spirit The Creative Spirit

created was “art” until his work was recognized by a curator, who suggested that he exhibit and sell it. Sizes of the pieces run from a foot or so in height Miami artist Purvis Young was incarcerat- to her enormous and ed as a young adult for theft and said that while in impressive doors.2 prison, an angel visited him and told him to paint.5 He taught himself to paint while in prison, and after Tragedy of a different his release, he continued to paint prolifically until sort motivated Mose Toll- his death in 2010. Young captures the daily life and iver to begin making art. struggles of the Overtown neighborhood in Miami, Tolliver was born around Florida, in his paintings. He said that during his youth, 1920 to Alabama share- Overtown was a harmonious, thriving community. croppers. One of a dozen It was the heart of Miami’s Jazz nightlife, where a children, he had 11 chil- range of rich cultures came together, sharing their dren of his own and sup- traditional foods and folklore. Overtown fell into Thornton Dial Sr., Big Black Bear Trying to Survive, 1993, carpet, metal, plastic bags, sealing compound on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.1 ported his family with odd decline when a highway overpass was built right jobs until a crate of mar- through its center to link the area to the “north- ble crushed his legs while south expressway.” Later, with the introduction of Tragedy and struggle seem to be common driving he was working in a furniture factory in the late 1960s. crack cocaine, Overtown became a very dangerous, forces for several of the artists in Vernacular Art from the Crippled, depressed, and drinking, a friend suggested that dilapidated place. Young lived his entire life in what Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection. Personal loss and he begin making paintings to pass the time. He painted became one of the roughest urban environments in religious faith motivated Tallahassee artist Mary Proctor, prolifically, filling his hallways, rooms in his home, and his the United States, recording his experiences day af- Mary L. Proctor, Once Again I Fall Down…, 1997, mixed media on a self-described former “Junk Dealer,” to begin making art. yard with paintings, and offering them to passersby for a board, 11 x 15.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, ter day through hundreds of drawings and paintings. Her grandmother, aunt, and uncle were all killed in a tragic few dollars each. In 1982, his work was featured in the 2009.1.10 He used materials found locally, such as house paint, house fire. Shortly after this, a grief-stricken Proctor had landmark exhibition, Black American Folk Art, at Washing- plywood, and cardboard to create his art. His life’s a vision. A voice told her to paint one of the many old ton, D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery. Suddenly he was recognized Samuels, ending his career as a tree doctor, crushing both work truly captures the heart of the people and re- doors in her junkyard. Proctor listened to the voice and as one of the most significant folk painters in America, of his legs and leaving him in a wheelchair. After three ality of life in this urban community. soon found herself painting everything she could find. She and collectors from far and wide were seeking out his years in the wheelchair, Samuels says that he attempted sees herself as a missionary, and her goal is to use her art work. Tolliver continued to paint until 2005. Working with suicide and was “locked up in a crazy house.” He then re- Thornton Dial Sr., perhaps the most renowned to spread her message. Typical paintings show stories from house paint on plywood, he created a wide array of won- called words from his grandmother: “When you are feel- artist represented in Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts her life, or members of her family, and usually include a derfully straightforward images; his favorite subjects were ing low,” she said, “whittle a stick.” Samuels said that his Center Permanent Collection, does not reveal what drives message or a lesson she has learned and wants to share. self, family, and nature.3 grandmother had no word for “depression,” but he re- him to create, but says that he has been “making things” as Proctor takes found objects and adds them to the paint- membered her advice and began to carve wood. Once he long as he can remember. He uses oil, water-based paint, ings, usually with hot glue or liquid nails, giving the pieces Like Mose Tolliver and Mary Proctor, O.L. Samuels began, he could not stop, and he credits the wood carving and bold colors for his paintings, and makes his sculptures a three-dimensional effect. She uses just about anything found personal salvation through making art. For Sam- for getting him out of the wheelchair and into a new ca- from found objects and easily acquired materials, such as in her paintings, from silverware to cut-up dollar bills. uels, art literally may have saved his life. A tree fell on reer.4 Samuels is a prolific artist who creates his art out of tin, tree roots, bottles, carpet, and plastic. According to found and recycled wood, finished with a paint-glue-sand him, he “was always making ideas, but the notion that mixture and a painting process that he invented. But like they were art never occurred to me until I met Bill Ar- VERNACULAR ART many Vernacular artists, Samuels did not realize what he nett”6 in 1987. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 7 The Creative Spirit Art as an Expression of Place by Angie Lewis Barry

Arnett was an art dealer from Atlanta and was es- pecially interested in folk art. Arnett arranged an exhibit of Dial’s work in 1988 at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, in 1989 at the Latin American Gallery in New York City, and at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2006. More recently, Arnett worked with the Indianapolis Museum of Art to mount a major retrospective of Dial’s work, Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial, which opened in 2011 and has traveled around the country.

Dial’s art expresses his concerns about racial issues in America and male-female relationships. His assemblages represent “what makes up the world as he sees it” and express his feelings about conflict, harmony, and the importance of community. Much of Dial’s work includes the symbol of the tiger, or the struggling black man, re- Jimmy Lee Sudduth, untitled, n.d., earth pigments, paint on wood, 24.75 x 12.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center flecting his special concern about the struggle of blacks in Permanent Collection, 2009.1.8 a white-dominated society.

While people have many diverse reasons for mak- One of the first you often ask school, living in rural environments with little exposure to ing art, and may or may not be able to identify what mo- questions when meeting someone new is “where are you from?” the outside world, and a significant religious upbringing. tivates them to do so, art is one of our most powerful A person’s hometown or home region is frequently in- Most were influenced by their African-American ancestry, forms of expression and communication. The act of mak- tegral to their character. A community can bring people a culture carried down for generations by members of ing art has an effect upon its creator, while the work of together; and shared experiences in the community can their families. Naturally, this sense of place, of who you are art itself communicates a wide range of ideas to those reach across barriers such as language, age, and race, and and where you came from, is evident in Vernacular artists’ who experience it. The human spirit is a creative one, and help human beings connect with one another. An artist’s work. O.L. Samuels, Godzilla, n.d., coins, glitter paint on wood, 29 x 84 x it is human to create. 23 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.6 community can be an influential piece of their story: it is, and will always be, a part of who they are. For Thornton Dial, Sr., growing up in rural Alabama, and working several odd jobs, ranging from Most of the artists represented in Vernacular Art carpenter, to cement mixer, to ironworker, has great- from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection are of Af- ly influenced his work. To Dial, everything is a pattern rican-American descent and lived for a significant period forming in his mind until it eventually emerges into in their lives, or are now living, in rural parts of the Deep his artwork. Dial uses materials in his sculptural relief South. Their communities dictated much of what shaped paintings that other people throw away and discard. He their early experiences and molded them into the art- incorporates materials like old rope, clothes, chicken ists they later became. These artists share many charac- wire, plastic tubing, tin from roofs, wire, pinecones, and

1. O’Keefe, Georgia, Georgia O’Keefe. New York: Viking, 1976). teristics, including growing up in poverty, dropping out of worn carpet because, he says, he “sees” something in 2. Self-Taught Folk Art at: http://alumnus.caltech.edu. 3. Ginger Young Gallery at: www.gingeryoung.com. 4. O.L. Samuels, story told to Grace Robinson at the Florida Senior Art Showcase, Tallahassee, Florida, 2008. 5. Purvis of Overtown (documentary film). Tinwood Media, 2006. 6. Mr. Dial Has Something to Say (documentary film). Alabama Public Television, 2007. 9 Art as an Expression of Place Art as an Expression of Place

Yard Art

Unbiased by the outside art world, such as stylistic trends and market forces, Vernacular artists can set their own aesthetic standards and create their own exhibition spaces. For example, the decorating of one’s yard with what looks like junk to most people is a creative expression found specifically in the rural Deep South. Many artists in the southeastern United States decorate their yards to express themselves, including several of the artists from Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts Center Per- manent Collection who used their yards as “galleries” to display their work and to communicate with others. Like most artwork, this type of art display is considered a form of communication, although yard art can communicate Joe Louis Light, untitled, 1993, paint on ply wood, 75 x 31 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.11 beyond the gallery and into an entire community. 3

Joe Light, Baby Shoe, n.d., paint on wood, baby shoe, 22 x 19.5 x 3.25 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.6 Frequently, Vernacular artists are discovered by everything. Dial says he likes to use only materials that resources. Sudduth said he could find over 36 different their eye-catching yards. William Arnett, an art historian have been used by other Americans, so he can take these colors from the rocks, dirt, and plants in his yard. This and collector from Atlanta, traveled throughout the Deep things and make “something new out of it.”1 By incorpo- artist used his family and friends as his subjects, capturing the Overtown community of Miami, Florida, depicted the South searching for artists who were unknown outside of rating materials used by others, Dial is making the people the people and culture of his environment, and the artist people, poverty, and violence he witnessed in his neigh- their rural towns. Arnett found artists like Thornton Dial, around him and his environment a part of his artwork. Al- used his surroundings, the plants and dirt, as his medium borhood. He incorporated materials he found on the Sr. and Lonnie Holley by coming across their elaborately though he uses these materials to depict an image on the and palette. streets of Overtown into his artwork, including card- decorated yards. Dial created elaborate, large-scale sculp- canvas, the essence of the original material still remains. board, newspapers, and abandoned furniture. Young’s tures that cluttered his house and surroundings. His art The rope still looks like rope, it is just wound together Locations and places influence the artists living there, interpretation of his neighborhood’s struggles introduced spilled from his house and work shed into his yard. Even- to represent hair. The viewer can sense this manipulation whether that is evident in their work or not. Often times, art the world to Overtown, and also brought the art world tually, Dial began to create work specifically for the out- of used and discarded things, intended to represent Dial’s movements begin in a specific place and are relevant to that to his community.2 doors, including installations that spanned his entire yard. own community. place and time. In a post-depression America, artists began to depict their country in a way that was a celebration of people Thornton Dial, Sr. also observed many injustices Hawkins Bolden grew up and spent his life in the Jimmy Lee Sudduth often painted the people of and a hopeful view of the heartland. This movement is called in his life and often expressed his feelings about these is- same small urban home squeezed between a car wash his hometown, Fayette County, Alabama, and used mate- Regionalism, as it observes a people and environment of a sues in his artwork. In the 1993 assemblage, Big Black Bear and a large privacy wall in Memphis, Tennessee. His garden rials found in his own yard to create his art. His moth- specific region or place. Trying to Survive, Dial depicts the large black bear, usually was his pride and joy and he loved gardening. Although er, a Native-American healer, taught him about natural considered a frightening beast, curled into itself in a defen- blind since he was a small child, Bolden collected aban- resources in Fayette County. From her, Sudduth learned Several of these Vernacular artists also comment on sive position. The title indicates that the bear is just trying doned items like pots and pans, carpet, washtubs, and hoses about the healing properties of plants and berries, but their surroundings in their artwork, expressing their own to get through life without violence or confrontation. Dial to created life-size “scarecrows” intended to keep birds he also noticed the color possibilities in these natural type of Regionalism. Purvis Young, an artist who lived in does not specifically say his work represents a specific out of his garden. Eventually, Bolden’s yard was covered people or place, but the essence of the Deep South and in his sculptures, and soon his “scarecrows” were sold as the struggles of its people are evident in much of his work. prized folk art. VERNACULAR ART from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 11 Art as an Expression of Place Works of Art in the Exhibition

Mary Tillman Smith used old scrap tin she found such as the Ten Commandment, with messages of peace Hawkins Bolden Thornton Dial, Sr. Edward Mumma Jimmy Lee Sudduth near her house in Hazelhurst, Mississippi, to build herself and mercy. Mary Proctor has a house just outside of untitled, n.d. Love Picture (As Life Go On), untitled, n.d. untitled, n.d. mixed media 1990 acrylic on canvas earth pigments on wood a fence. Smith whitewashed the fence and strategically Tallahassee, Florida, which sits directly on a major thor- 26 x 79 x 9 inches watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches 12.5 x 42.5 inches spaced the barrier to create a place to display her paint- oughfare. She calls her yard the “American Folk Art 22.5 x 30 inches ings. The fence was a space that represented everything Museum & Gallery,” and uses this opportunity to spread Richard Burnside Mary L. Proctor Jimmy Lee Sudduth The King Suffering, n.d. Thornton Dial, Sr. Once Again I Fall Down..., 1997 untitled, n.d. she needed in the world. She painted warning signs to her message of gospel. paint, paper on wood The Tiger Knocks the Lady mixed media on board earth pigments, paint on “keep out” to ensure her privacy and security. Smith’s 21 x 23.5 inches Down and the Midget Runs 11 x 15.5 inches wood Away, 1988 24.75 x 12.5 inches yard art served two purposes: it sheltered Smith from the Ruby Williams says she has been ministering all Archie Byron Enamel, vinyl, plastic industrial Mary L. Proctor outside world, and advised her neighborhoods to keep her life and often includes moral messages in her work. untitled, n.d. sealing compound, corrugat- Self-Portrait, n.d. Mose Tolliver their distance. Her religious and spiritual paintings will have excerpts sawdust, glue, ceiling tile ed tin on wood paint, glass on found window Golden Eagle, n.d. 22 x 21 x 5 inches 97.5 x 48 inches 44.5 x 49 x 4.5 inches paint on wood from psalms painted above an image, or simple messages 24 x 18 inches Joe Light also created a type of fortress at his like “Praise the Lord.” Arthur Dial Alyne Harris Mary L. Proctor house, painting messages and pictures directly on his untitled, c.1990s The Baptism, n.d. St. Mattew 4-4, 1995 Mose Tolliver paint, fiber on wood acrylic on canvas fiber, paint on plywood Wild Moose Lady, n.d. house expressing his controversial opinions on how soci- Joe Light grew up in a Baptist household but always 38 x 38 inches 30 x 24 inches 12 x 27.5 inches paint on wood ety should behave. He directed these messages specifically felt that Christianity was unfair to African-Americans. Af- 18.75 x 24 inches at the residents of his town, hoping to influence them as ter studying the Old Testament in prison, Light converted Thornton Dial, Jr. Bessie Harvey O.L. Samuels untitled, n.d. untitled, n.d. Firefly,2009 Mose Tolliver they walked or drove by. His paintings were a type of to Judaism; however, most of the views he expressed in paint, tin, fiber on wood tree root, paint, plastic beads fiber, glitter paint on wood untitled, n.d. gospel that Light could share with his community, using his work came from the New Testament. Light painted 39 x 48 x 6 inches 9 x 17 x 4 inches 31 x 24.75 x 5 inches paint on wood 13 x 24 inches striking images and cautionary phrases. images and expressions on his house warning viewers Thornton Dial, Sr. Lonnie Holley O.L. Samuels about their behavior, and regularly offering advice, such Big Black Bear Trying to untitled, n.d. Godzilla, n.d. Felix Virgous Ruby Williams initially created her “gallery” of as “Think Before You Do What You Want To Do, Because Survive, 1993 paint on board coins, glitter paint on wood Jonah and the Big Fish, n.d. carpet, metal, plastic bags, 23.25 x 17.5 inches 29 x 84 x 23 inches collage, paint on board paintings around her produce stand to attract customers. You Can’t Undo Some of the Things That Have Already sealing compound on canvas 23.5 x 16.5 inches Williams’ work ranges from what she calls “sayings” like Been Done.” 62 x 40.25 inches Joe Louis Light Mary Tillman Smith an image of a baby’s bottle and a message “Can’t cry over Baby Shoe, n.d. untitled, n.d. Ruby C. Williams Thornton Dial, Sr. baby shoe, paint on wood paint on wood Piano Playing Cow I Give Better spilt milk baby,” to images of “models,” people who are A sense of place and its influence on one’s upbring- Everything is under the Black 22 x 19.5 x 3.25 inches 23.75 x 23.75 inches Buttermilk, n.d. exhibiting model behavior, like people eating their fruits ing are often associated with shaping a person’s character Tree, n.d. paint on plywood and vegetables and dressed up for church. Soon, Williams’s and personality. An artist expressing a sense of place in paint on wood Joe Louis Light Mary Tillman Smith 48 x 24 inches 48 x 31.5 inches Four Flowers, n.d. untitled, n.d. paintings were the highlight of her stand, and although she their work is simply incorporating an aspect of them- paint on board paint on wood Purvis Young still sells produce, the main product selling is her artwork. selves within their art. Artists exhibiting in Vernacular Art Thornton Dial, Sr. 19.75 x 14 inches 24 x 32 inches untitled, n.d. Fishing For Love, 1990 collage, paint on wood from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection draw watercolor on paper Joe Louis Light Henry Speller 24 x 43.5 inches Spiritual Themes from their physical surroundings to dictate what materi- 22.5 x 30 inches untitled, 1993 Lee Sisters, n.d. als they use, and they draw on their communities for the paint on plywood pencil, crayon on paper Thornton Dial, Sr. 75 x 31 inches 15.75 x 18 inches All works of art in this Another facet of the Vernacular art that ties direct- subjects they depict. These artists also draw from their Life Go On, 1990 exhibition are from the ly with the Deep South and the African-American com- ancestry and religious backgrounds to shape ideas and watercolor on paper Ronald Lockett Henry Speller Gadsden Arts Center munity is the appearance of biblical themes throughout messages within their work. Art can express countless 22.5 x 30 inches Traps, 1993 untitled, n.d. Permanent Collection, collage, rope, watercolor on ink on paper Quincy, Florida. many artists’ works. Mary Proctor, who calls herself a ideas, and the expression of place in the Vernacular art- Thornton Dial, Sr. paper 14 x 17 inches missionary, inscribes biblical verses on many of her works. ist’s work is very powerful. Life Go On, 1990 29.75 x 22 inches Proctor often depicts angels, and details from the Bible, watercolor on paper 30 x 23 inches

1. Arnett,W. and P. Arnett. “Mr. Dial is a Man Looking for Something” in Souls Grown Deep. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001, 202. 2. Santiago, F. and Burch, A. “Miami Artist Purvis Young Dies at 67.” Miami Herald. 20 April 2010. 3. Gundaker, G. “Tradition and Innovation in African-American Yards.” African Arts. 26(2), 58-96. 13 Thornton Dial Sr., Love Picture (As Life Goes On), 1990, watercolor on paper, 22.5 x 30 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2007.1.1 Thornton Dial Sr., Fishing For Love, 1990, watercolor on paper, 22.5 x 30 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.4

VERNACULAR ART from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 15 Thornton Dial Sr. (b. 1928) In 2011, the Indianapolis Museum of Thornton Dial, Sr. was born in 1928 in Emelle, Alabama. He was Art revealed a new traveling retrospective one of twelve children and never knew his father. His family made their living sharecrop- of Dial’s work: Hard Truths: The Art of Thorn- ping, and he grew up helping out on the farm. Dial went to school on and off for a few ton Dial, which traveled throughout the years, but dropped out completely after he was ridiculed for being 13 years old in the 2nd southeast. The popularity of this exhibition grade. Instead of going to school, Dial snuck off to work different odd jobs, including and the buzz surrounding Dial led Time carpenter, house painter, cement mixer, and ironworker. magazine to publish an article noting the From 1952 to 1980, he worked for the Pullman Standard Company, a railroad car artist’s elevation into the art world: “What factory in Bessemer, Alabama. Dial says he learned about drawing from his job at the he does can be discussed as art, just art, no Pullman factory, studying designs for the steel machines. After his retirement, he concen- surplus notions of outsiderness required”5. trated on his artwork, as well as raising turkeys and making wrought-iron lawn furniture Since that exhibition Thornton Dial with his sons. has had many health problems, and al- Dial says he was always making art and expressing his ideas; however, he didn’t know though he is in his 80s, he still consistently it was art until he met William Arnett in 19871. Arnett is an art dealer and collector from creates large sculptural paintings. Much of Thornton Dial Sr., Life Go On, 1990, watercolor on paper, 30 his work now is almost totally nonobjective- Atlanta, Georgia, who travels throughout the Southeast meeting and discovering artists like x 22.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, Thornton Dial. This type of art, known as “self-taught,” “folk,” “outsider,” or “vernacular” 2007.1.2. large high-relief paintings in monochromatic art was unknown to the larger art community and was not truly considered “fine” art until colors of black, white, and brown. It is as artists like Dial exhibited at museums like the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the though his work is quieting down; he is not making his message so apparent anymore, but Whitney Museum of Art in New York. allowing the viewer to add more to the conversation. Dial says he likes to create his artwork with materials others have thrown away2. Dial is an artist who has created art his entire life, from a deep-rooted need to “make With most of his sculptural pieces, Dial collects all of the components of the work, such things,” and who did not know that he was making “art” until the late 1980s. Thornton as old carpet, rope, fence, or clothes and “builds” the art first. After the art is built Dial Dial, Sr. is now considered one of the creative geniuses of his time, and the most famous paints the entire sculpture to “fit” the work. These large sculptural paintings are often huge, vernacular artist from the Southeast, whose work has shattered the art world’s notion of creating imposing art that is literally coming into the viewer’s space. “folk” and “outsider” art. Although Dial has never had any education or art training and is from a rural town in the Deep South, his work touches on themes of racial inequality, Dial confirms that his representation of the tiger in a majority of his paintings is sym- struggles in a modern world, and relationships between men and women, themes that bolic of “struggle,” however, Dial’s tiger is widely regarded by art critics and historians as resonate with audiences around the world. the African-American man’s struggle for freedom in America. Dial says most of his work is about freedom and power, and the tiger is a reoccurring image3. In 1990, Dial exhibited a collection of his work called Ladies of the United States, at Kennesaw State College in Marietta, Georgia. Soon after this show, Dial started drawing on paper, primarily images of women, in response to an art critic who stated that Dial couldn’t draw and made women look ugly. This was particularly hurtful to Dial, as he has a huge respect for the female gender. He was raised by women, and believes women carry strength, power, and love. Dial says that man would lose his “struggle” without women’s strength and love4. 1. Mr. Dial Has Something to Say. Dir. Celia Carey. Alabama Pubic Television, 2007. DVD. 2. As told by Thornton Dial. “Mr. Dial is a Man Looking for Something” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 201-202. 3. Arnett, William. “A Network of Ideas” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 1. Eds. Paul Arnett and William Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000, 187. VERNACULAR ART 4. As told by Thornton Dial. “Mr. Dial is a Man Looking for Something.” 208. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 5. Lacayo, Richard. “Outside the Lines.” Time 14 Mar. 2011: 54-57. 17 Arthur Dial (b. 1930)

Mixed media artist Arthur Dial is known for his assemblages depicting regional folklore and biblical passages. Born and raised in rural Alabama, Dial developed an interest in the arts from his well-known artist half-brother, Thornton Dial, Sr. Just as many vernacular southern artists, he pulls much of his inspiration from his surroundings, both in material and concept.1 He held a job with a company called U.S. Pipe, what the locals termed the “Pipe Shop,” for thirty-seven years until the extended chemical exposure eventually degraded his health. Throughout his long career, the constant interaction with piping materials began to infiltrate his artwork, as he “made other stuff, little peoples, animals, and crucifixions and stuff like that out of scrap pipe and steel and leftover supplies around the shop.”2 Dial frequently uses materials such as burlap, spray paint, and industrial sealing compound in the fabrication of his works, offering high-relief texture to his paintings. Dial’s neighborhood, also known as “Pipe Shop,” offered a great deal of support for his artistic practice, often serving as inspiration for his pieces. He frequently represented the people in his community that he related to, such as the “working man,” in addition to biblical characters, such as Adam and Eve. Dial’s process is organic and unique, serving as an artistic extension of him. He states, “I take ideas from my own head. I got one or two ideas from the news but most of it comes from what I see and the opinions I got inside me. My art is a record of what went by.”3 His concepts are not meant to encompass archetypal ideas or overarching philosophies, but rather his personal identity as an artist, what’s important to him, and his societal context.

Arthur Dial, untitled, c.1990s, paint, fiber on wood, 38 x 38 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2014.1

1. Sellen, Betty-Carol. “Artists: Arthur Dial” in Self Taught Outsider, and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations, and Resources, 160. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003. 2. “Arthur Dial.” Souls Grown Deep Foundation. As told by Arthur Dial to William Arnett, 1997. http://soulsgrowndeep.org/artist/arthur-dial VERNACULAR ART 3. Dial, Arthur. “A Record of What Went By” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South, Eds. Paul and William from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection Arnett, 368-74. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 19 Thornton Dial Jr. (b. 1953)

Thornton Dial Jr., called “Little Buck” by his family, was born in 1953 in Bessemer, Alabama1. He attended school through the 11th grade, after which he worked doing construction in Birmingham, Alabama, for around seven years. Dial then returned to Bessemer to work for the Pullman Standard Company operating punch-and- shear machines. It was at this time that he learned to bend and shape iron, a skill that he would later use to create his sculpture. Dial married his first wife in 1972 and had two children before they divorced in 1981. In 1986 he married Angela Jackson and fathered two more children, as well as becoming the stepfather of Jackson’s daughter from a previous marriage. That same year Dial, inspired by his father’s art, began creating artwork of his own. Thornton Dial Jr. works in several mediums, including painting, sculpture, and assemblage. He prefers to paint with oil-based enamel house paint, which he considers to be a basic material, as opposed to using “artist’s paint,” or more traditional materials.2 His assemblages are made from found and purchased materials, and his sculptures are made from cut and molded sheet metal and iron. Dial’s paintings are characterized by the use of strong colors, bold lines, and often repetition to emphasize his message. He uses animals and nature in his work to symbolize social conditions within modern society. Much of his work focuses on the relationships between blacks and whites, as well as humans’ relationship to nature. Over the years, Thornton Dial Jr. has gained much recognition for his art and has exhibited around the country at museums like the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. His work is also included in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City. Dial is proudly continuing the artistic traditions started by his father, Thornton Dial Sr.

Thornton Dial Jr., untitled, n.d., paint, tin, fiber on wood, 39 x 48 x 6 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.5

VERNACULAR ART 1. Barrett, D. “Little Buck.” Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol II. Tinwood Books: Atlanta, 2001, 470. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 2. UNKNOWN 21 Hawkins Bolden (1914 - 2005)

Hawkins Bolden and his identical twin brother, Monroe, were born in the Bailey’s Bottom section of Memphis, Tennessee, to parents of Creole and American Indian descent. At age eight, Hawkins lost his eyesight as a result of a blow to the head while playing baseball with his brother; however, blindness did not squelch his creativity; he made kites, tom-walkers (leg stilts), skate trucks—toys for his nieces and nephews— even a radio, from a wire, a crystal, and a coathanger.1

Bolden lived in the same house his entire life, a small urban home squeezed between a car wash and a privacy wall. His garden was his pride and joy and he loved gardening. One day his nephew told him he could scare away the birds if he made eyes in a bucket with a screwdriver. Starting in 1965, he created objects of art from discarded punctured pans, metal lids, washtubs, coffeepots, shoe soles, hoses—anything to make noise and flap in the wind. Most of his work is representational of human faces and bodies attached to a post. His sculptures are prized as works of folk art, and although Bolden intended his sculptures to be placed outside, many collectors prefer to display his artwork indoors, as sculpture.2 Bolden’s studio was under his house, where he stored his collection of materials that he found on the street and in alleys. He tossed his findings in the crawl space, retrieved them by touch, and bound them together with wire and string. Bolden was aware of interest in his work, and continued to challenge himself to make his pieces more complex until his death in 2005.3

Hawkins Bolden, untitled, n.d., mixed media, 26 x 79 x 9 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.1

1. Arnett, William. “Insight.” Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tin- wood Books, 2001. 151. VERNACULAR ART 2. Rosenak, Chuck and Jan Rosenak. Contemporary American Folk Art: a Collector’s Guide. Abbeville Press: New York, 1996. 78. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 3. “Hawkins Bolden.” Webb Art Gallery. Webb Gallery, 2001. http://www.webbartgallery.com/hawkins-bolden. 23 Richard Burnside (b. 1944)

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1944, Richard Burnside was driven to paint around the age of thirty when he began to be plagued by night visions of ancient times. The artist used his art not only to express what he saw1 but also to deal with the stress and confusion that came along with these visions. Through his art, the viewer can see the internal struggle of his nightly visions and how he began to find meaning in each. Burnside’s dream world, or night visions, was the catalyst for his now popularly collected vernacular pieces. He infuses his art with many of the dream characters he encounters using a signature style to express the feeling of angst and intensity. A large portion of his art shows confrontational figures; ancient kings and queens, jungle cats and white wolves, who stare directly at the viewer, challenging them to stare back. The paintings are thrust up against the frame with little depth to distract from the flat, mask-like faces he outlines in heavy black lines. Burnside’s use of color jolts scenes to life as the rhythmic patterns surrounding the central figures create movement. Burnside calls these patterns “Roman writing,” an ancient language he also sees in his dreams.2 He combines biblical scenes, folktales, and nursery rhymes to create his own “Africanized mythology.”3 Each of his paintings is brimming with symbolism, meaning, and a running documentation of his own thoughts and dreams. Largely self-taught, Burnside uses oil-based enamel paint on paper bags and plywood.4 The artist uses a number of other materials for his work, including many found items such as gourds or abandoned wooden boards. He has also been known to use pinecone pieces for the teeth or claws of his painted subjects. His art has been compared to that of African tribes, as well as American Indian tribes,5 sharing the qualities of rich symbolism with each. Richard Burnside has been creating his work for decades as a means to share his Richard Burnside, The King Suffering, n.d., paint, paper on wood, 21 x 23.5 inches, Gadsden Arts visions with the world. His work hangs in many House of Blues bars, and has been collected Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.17 by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He currently lives in South Carolina, quietly continuing the creation of his inspiring work.

1. Crotty, D. “Richard Burnside” Self Taught Folk Art. n.p. 1997-2004. http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~dacrotty/burnside.html. 2. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. “Richard Burnside” in Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New York: harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 2001. 168. 3. Arnett, William “Richard Burnside” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 1. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 442. VERNACULAR ART 4. Wertkin, Gerard C., Kogan, Lee, “Richard Burnside” in Encyclopedia of American Folk Art, 2004. 74. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 5. Wertkin and Krogan, 74. 25 Archie Byron (1928 - 2005)

Archie Byron was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1928. He was raised primarily by his grandmother until leaving high school in 1946 to join the Navy’s efforts in Okinawa, Japan as a WWII draftee. After returning from the war Byron attended trade school under the G.I. bill to become a bricklayer, which was his profession until 1961, when he helped to establish the first African-American owned private investigations firm.1 Over the years, Byron owned and ran several businesses, from a tackle shop to a firing range to a security guard training school. In 1975, Byron’s fascination with art began when he discovered an uprooted piece of wood that reminded him of a gun2. He started searching for roots to display and also to sculpt. After two years, he used his experience manipulating tree roots to create a technique of combining the sawdust accumulated from the day’s operations with glue and water to form sculptures of various figures and animals. Often Byron’s figures had a religious or political connotation3. Byron continued to create artworks based on his own personal style and while his recognition as an artist grew, so did his political career. Byron was commissioned by the Mayor of Atlanta to take part in creating artworks for the city’s Folk Art Park and served as a city council member for Atlanta from 1981 to 1990. By the later years of his life, Byron was sculpting and experimenting with other materials, as well as continuing his traditional sawdust mixture. However, by the end of his life, being unable to work with sawdust, Byron turned to painting4. After a long battle with lung cancer, Bryon passed away in 2005. Archie Byron’s sculptures still stand in Atlanta’s Folk Art Park, and his work can be Archie Byron, untitled, n.d., ceiling tile, sawdust, glue, paint, 22 x 21 x 5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center found in many private art collections, as well as the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Permanent Collection, 2010.1.2 American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

1. Arnett, Paul. “Anatomically Correct” in Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art. Vol I. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 229. 2. Arnett, 231. 3. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New VERNACULAR ART York: Harry A. Abrams, Inc., 2001. 152. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 4. “Archie Byron.” Orange Hill Art Gallery. Orange Hill Art, Inc., 2005. http://www.orangehillart.com/artistinfo.asp?ArtistID=1003. 27 Alyne Harris (b. 1942)

Born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1942, Alyne Harris began creating art as a child. She drew angels in the sand with a stick, and says she always had a vision of what to draw before she drew it.1 Those same visions still come to her today as she sits down to paint one of her spiritual and vibrant pieces. The main subjects of her paintings are centered on the African-American experience, showing such struggles as slavery, the dichotomy of good and bad, religion, and the physical landscape.2 Harris’s painting style is very easily identifiable; she uses the same techniques throughout her work, broad brushstrokes and quick thick dabs of paint. She tends to use anything available as a tool, her fingers, something off the ground, a kitchen utensil, all combining to create her signature look.3 Instead of the sand she used to draw in as a child, Harris now paints with acrylic on board, paper, and canvas to bring to life the visions she sees in her head. When looking at her work, you see ethereal angels surrounded by bold colors of the setting sun, or trees blooming for the first time in spring, or even dark nighttime vistas where the moon looms eerily overhead. In each of these settings the viewer is confronted with Harris’s love of col- or. She is inspired by the colors of Van Gogh, as well as quilts hanging out to dry, or other things simply lying by the side of the road.4 Today Harris works as a housekeeper in Gainesville, Florida, and works diligently into the night on her paintings. She says, “I’ll do painting for a living when I retire.”5 Harris is now a widely regarded folk artist whose work is included in the collections of the Rockford Art Museum in Illinois, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Asheville Art Museum in North Carolina.

Alyne Harris, The Baptism, n.d., acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.14

1. Arnett, William “Alyne Harris: Taken from interviews with Alyne Harris conducted by William Arnett” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 1. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 438. 2. Monroe, Gary. “Alyne Harris” in Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida’s Self-taught Artists. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. 71 3. Congdon, Kristin G. and Tina Bucuvales. “Alyne Harris” in Just Above the Water: Florida Folk Art. University Press of Mississippi, 2006. 113. VERNACULAR ART 4. Arnett, 438. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 5. Congdon, 114. 29 Bessie Ruth Harvey (1929 - 1994)

Bessie Harvey was born in Dallas, Georgia on the eve of the Great Depression. Despite, or perhaps because of, her challenging early life, she would go on to become one of the foremost vernacular artists from Tennessee. One of ten children, with an alcoholic mother and a father who died while she was still very young, Harvey’s childhood was troubled and painful. Married at fourteen to an abusive husband, Harvey soon found herself struggling to raise eleven children alone and with only the assistance of welfare and her fourth-grade education. Harvey’s creative impetus was primarily spiritual. With her teenage sons involved in drugs and petty crime, Harvey turned to God to cope with her daily struggles. She claimed that the Lord began showing her faces in the walls to soothe her, creating her desire to bring forth the undiscovered faces within nature.1 Using roots and gnarled wood, Harvey began making sculptures expressive of these visions. Her distinctive style of sculpture led many to identify her as a ‘voodoo woman,’ a distinction that greatly upset Harvey. As a devout Christian, Harvey saw her art as overcoming the spiritual nature of her materials and giving them a new Christian force.2 Consequently, Harvey burned many of her sculptures. Harvey’s sculptures are often highly abstract, drawing from the natural forms of her materials. Adorned with paint and various found materials, including feathers, shells, and jewelry, Harvey’s sculptures take on a lifelike presence that animates the space in which they are placed. Harvey’s art was formally introduced in an employee’s art exhibition for the hospital at which she worked as a housekeeper’s aide. In retrospect, this exhibition can easily be seen as the springboard for Harvey’s artistic career. After the hospital exhibition, art critics took notice of Harvey and her work. Many identified parallels between Harvey’s aesthetic and the traditions of tribal art from Africa. This inspired in Harvey a deep desire to learn all that she could about the artistic traditions of both her African and her Native American heritages. This study greatly influenced Harvey’s later work in both form and content, celebrating her rich cultural heritage.3 After she retired in 1983, Harvey’s works were seen in galleries and museums across the country. A year after her death, Bessie Harvey’s work was exhibited in the 1995 Biennial of the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Through both hardship Bessie Harvey, untitled, n.d., tree root, paint, plasitc beads, 9 x 17 x 4 inches, and success, Bessie Harvey never lost sight of what was truly important to both herself and her Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.4 work – a uniquely deep faith and a comfort found in discovering one’s true calling.

1. Conwill, Kinshasha. Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. 162. 2. Conwill, 162 VERNACULAR ART 3. Borum, Jenifer. “Bessie Harvey.” Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art of the South. Vol. 1. Eds. William Arnett and Paul from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 168. 31 Lonnie Holley (b. 1950)

Born February 10, 1950, in Birmingham, Alabama, Lonnie Holley is the seventh of twenty-seven children, with fifteen children of his own. During his youth, Holley was moved from one foster home to the next. He spent time in the Industrial School for Negro Children in Mount Meigs, Alabama, until he ran away at the age of fourteen. He worked his way through a variety of jobs in Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama, and has most recently settled in Atlanta. Holley began creating his art in 1979 after a house fire tragically killed two of his nieces, sending Holley into a deep depression that almost drove him to suicide. As the family could not afford tombstones for the graves, Holley decided to use his grief constructively and build them himself out of sandstone that he found at a foundry near his sister’s home. Holley believes that divine intervention led him to the material.1 These tombstones mark the beginning of Holley’s artistic career. He says of the tombstones, “I asked God to give me something so that I may go to the top in life, and He did. I use the setting sun, the stars, the hills – all that has affected my imagination and what I put into my work.”2 Soon after creating the tombstones, Holley began turning his yard into a menagerie of found materials and assemblages. In 1980, he took some of his carvings to the Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art who gave Holley his first exhibition. The Birmingham Director contacted the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., which included Holley’s work in the 1981 exhibition, More Than Land and Sky: Art From Appalachia. In the beginning, Holley constructed his sculptures primarily out of industrial-grade sandstone, but later he expanded his materials to include discarded wire, scrap metal, and wood. By the mid-1980s, Holley branched into painting. These works contain West Afri- can, Egyptian, and Pre-Columbian era influences through Holley’s strong emphasis on the spiritual world and his use of human and animal forms, and his heritage. Holley also creates more abstract paintings whose geometric forms are an homage to the influences of such modern Western artists as Picasso, Arp, and Moore. Lonnie Holley, untitled, n.d., paint on board, 23.25 x 17.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.5 Holley’s life has been a dramatic ride filled with ups and downs, and it is only fitting that at age 62, Holley made his debut as a recording artist. His music is almost indescribable, “haunting vocals accompanied by rudimental keyboard effects,” all of which is completely improvised.3 Holley still creates art daily, along with his recordings, and is represented by art galleries and a record label. Through personal tragedy, Lonnie Holley discovered a hidden talent and has become one of the foremost Vernacular artists of his time.

1. Kemp, Kathy and Keith Boyer. Revelations: Alabama’s Visionary Folk Artists Birmingham: Crane Hill Publishers, 1994. 86. 2. Nosanow, Barbara Shissler ed. More than Land or Sky: Art from Appalachia. Washington D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1981. 70. VERNACULAR ART 3. Binelli, Mark. “Lonnie Holley, the Insider’s Outsider.” The New York Times Magazine. 23 Jan 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/ from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection magazine/lonnie-holley-the-insiders-outsider.html?_r=0. 33 Joe Louis Light (1934 - 2005)

Joe Light was born in Dyersburg, Tennessee, in 1934. He admitted that his youth was filled with delinquency, and that he spent time in jail twice, after which he lived for most of his life in Tennessee with his wife, Rosie Lee, and their ten children. During his second jail sentence, he converted to Judaism after hearing a prison chaplain reading from the Old Testament. He had always resented Christianity because of his father’s harsh Baptist teachings and his belief that Christianity was simply made up of “false promises made by whites to blacks.”1 This religious conversion is reflected in much of his artwork. Light’s goal was to spread the word of salvation to everyone around him. Light saw himself as a fighter against the shortcomings of humanity, including igno- rance, hypocrisy, and injustice, and used his paintings as his weapons.2 His earliest artwork was writing biblical-sounding declarations on highway bridges and sidewalks. Later, he began painting images and sayings on his house, particularly on his shutters. He also placed similar signs in his yard, expressing his controversial opinions on how society should behave. Light intended for these signs to be seen by everyone who walked by his house. Joe Light’s paintings are characterized by bold, black lines outlining brightly colored cartoon-like figures. He worked with house paint on wood and also painted on discarded objects like hubcaps and old TV sets. Sometimes, instead of working on the found objects, he placed them directly on top of the painting, adding what he called “attachments.” These “attachments” are anything from old photographs to toys, and are mostly found at the flea market where he worked for several years. In his old age, Light suffered from diabetes and had financial difficulties. Sadly, Light Joe Louis Light, Four Flowers, n.d., paint on board, 19.75 x 14 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent lost his house and yard, which contained much of his artwork. He believed, however, that Collection, 2010.1.6 whatever happened to him was the will of God, but stated, “Of course, if it’s his will to make things get a little better, I won’t mind.”3

1. Arnett, William. “River Deep, Mountain High” in Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 283. 2. Arnett, 282. VERNACULAR ART 3. Told by Joe Light. “Black Man of Jewish Faith” in Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 306. 35 Ronald Lockett (1965 - 1998)

Even as a young child, Ronald Lockett knew he had to become as artist. Perhaps it was in his blood. He was born in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1965 and was raised by his grandmother. His grandmother also raised Thornton Dial Sr., whom Lockett called “Uncle Buck.” Like Dial, who became his mentor, Lockett made use of found materials and represented his ideas about social issues through allegorical animals in a variety of mediums.1

For a while, Lockett tried his hand at working in the Dial family business of making metal furniture, but he kept coming back to his art. In this venture, he found little encouragement from his mother, yet he refused to let her stop him and has even said, “So sometimes discouragement can encourage, too.”2 When he was 20 years old, he caught the attention of William and Judy Arnett, collectors of African-American Vernacular Art, and began his career in earnest. Ten years later, at the age of 33, he died. Conflict is central in Lockett’s work. Paul Arnett has called his art “death driven.”3 Images of traps and chains reflect the plight of African Americans from slavery into modern times when many were still “trapped in poverty.” Lockett says, “I’m expressing an idea of what I really think is wrong with society.”4 In his later work, themes of traps and rebirth were presented through rusty tin siding covered with oxidized paint that had been put there by Thornton Dial Sr. in the 1950s and ‘60s.5 He also explored tragedies through the medium of quilts, such as the Oklahoma bombings and the deaths of Princess Diana and Sarah Dial Lockett, his great aunt. In August of 1998, Lockett died of pneumonia brought on by AIDS. He had never left Bessemer. In his youth, “most folks paid him no mind,”6 but by the time of his death, everyone knew his name, and he had left his mark on African-American Vernacular Art.

Ronald Lockett, Traps, 1993, collage, rope, watercolor on paper, 29.75 x 22 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Perma- nent Collection, 2010.1.8

1 Conwill, Kinshasha , et al. Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry A. Abrams, Inc., 2001. 114. 2 Conwill, 114. 3 Arnett, Paul. “Improvising in a New Key.” Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 516. 4 Moses, Kathy. Outsider Art of the South. Alglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1999. 171. VERNACULAR ART 5 Arnett, 523. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 6 Arnett, 520. 37 Edward “Mr. Eddy” Mumma (1908 - 1986)

Edward Mumma was born in Milton, Ohio, in 1908. As a young man he traveled the county doing odd jobs, until he married and settled down near Springfield, Ohio, around 1936. Mumma and his wife started an antiques and junk business, which they ran until his wife’s death in 1966.That year, Mumma retired to Gainesville, Florida, to be near his daughter, Carroll. Mumma suffered with cataracts, a drinking problem, and diabetes most of his life, and even lost both of his legs due to complications from the disease.1 After moving to Florida, Mumma’s daughter encouraged him to take an art class, to help take his mind off of his illnesses. The teacher told Mumma his style was “sloppy,” and although Mumma never took another class, he continued to paint. Most of Edward Mumma’s work consists of abstract versions of portraits focusing on faces and hands, although sometimes he depicted sailboats or animals. His portraits almost always depicted the same close-up, expressionless, round face. This figure is repeated over and over in Mumma’s work, with variations of colors, hand placements, and dress. Often, Mumma painted on both sides of his canvas or board paintings, and crudely framed them with scrap wood or plastic. Mumma rarely shared or sold his work, and kept his entire collection, between 600 and 800 works, at his house. After his death, all of his work was sold to art collectors.2 It is now available for sale at many folk art galleries, and is in the collection of major museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia.

Edward Mumma, (sides 1 & 2) untitled, n.d., acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.9

1. Trechsel, Gail Andrews ed. Pictures in My Mind: Comtemporary Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen. Jackson, Mississippi: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1995. 148. VERNACULAR ART 2. Rosenak, Chuck and Jan Rosenak. Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists. New from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection York: Abbeville Press, 1990. 39 Mary L. Proctor (b. 1960)

Mary Proctor was born to an eleven-year-old mother in Jefferson County, Florida in 1960 and raised by her grandparents, a bi-racial couple that faced much scrutiny from the community. Though she never knew her father, Proctor believes he was an artist like herself, and that he painted pictures in the local church.1 At seventeen, Mary Proctor married a fireman from Tallahassee and began her vast collections of odds and ends she accumulated into a flea market called Noah’s Ark Flea Market.2 Like many of the Vernacular artists in the Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection exhibition, Mary Proctor can pinpoint the exact moment and reason why she began to paint. In 1994, a fire took the lives of her grandmother, aunt, and uncle. Proctor claims that right before the fire happened she had a vision, “I saw light going all the way up into heaven.”3 As the depression of her loss set in, Proctor found comfort in religion, praying extensively for an answer to her pain. In 1995, Proctor claims she had a vision during prayer that told her to get a door and paint.4 Since this vision Proctor has taken it upon herself to be a missionary to the world. She instills her paintings with passages from scripture and glittering angels. She signs most pieces with the name “Missionary Mary L Proctor.” Embellishment is one of her signature attributes: button, glass, and fake jewel-encrusted figures fill the window and door frames she frequently uses instead of canvas or board. In 2011, Proctor and her family were evicted from the property she had kept as her junkyard and studio.5 Fortunately, the artist was offered space in a mall in north Tallahassee, where she opened the American Folk Art Museum and Gallery. There Proctor is able to sell a variety of folk art, mainly her own, and make a living. Proctor says, “I started painting because of love and healing,” which has helped the artist through dark times. In spite of the hardships Proctor encounters, she continues to create and sell her visionary work.6

1. Told by Mary Proctor to William Arnett. “Mary Proctor: I Believe in My Mission” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Mary L. Proctor, St. Matthew 4-4,1995, paint on plywood,12 x 27.5 Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 448. inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2007.1.4 2. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. Mary Proctor.” Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South. The Ronal & June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 2001. 128. 3. Arnett, 451. 4. Monroe, Gary. “Mary Proctor” in Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida’s Self-taught Artists. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. 73. VERNACULAR ART 5. Ensley, Gerald. “Folk Artist Mary Proctor Evicted Due to Hard Times.” Tallahassee.com. Tallahassee Democrat. 14 Jan 2011. Web. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 6. Arnett, 455. 41 O.L. Samuels (b. 1931)

O.L. Samuels was born in Wilcox County, Georgia, on November 18, 1931. Samuels left home when he was eight years old and worked various odd jobs around the country, including working as a farmer, professional boxer, musician, and tree surgeon. While working as a tree surgeon in 1982, Samuels was seriously injured and had to spend his lengthy recovery in a wheelchair. The accident sent him into a deep depression, until he remembered his grandmother’s advice to carve wood whenever he was down. This was the beginning of Samuels’s artistic career. Samuels works mainly with found wood objects such as tree trunks, roots, and old wood furniture, which he will carve for months at a time. The artist paints his sculptures with a secret concoction of paint, glitter, sawdust, and glue that he warms on the stove, and uses as a “skin” for his sculptures.1 Although color-blind, Samuels paints several layers of wild, expressive colors, “using every color so he doesn’t leave any out.”2 Samuels is known for his imaginary images, dreamlike figures, and mythical creatures, each of whom comes with a story about its existence. Samuels’s obvious preference is to carve images of horses, which he says are “the most prideful of all the animals.”3 Samuels became a lay minister later in life, and his work often has a spiritual message. O.L. Samuels lives in Tallahassee with his wife, using his living room as a workshop. He is still actively creating and exhibiting his artwork. Samuels has been considered one of the most talented self-taught artists in America by museums across the country. His work is included in several permanent collections, including the White House, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Museum of African Art.

O.L. Samuels, Firefly, 2009, fiber, glitter paint on wood, 31 x 24.75 x 5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.2

1. Monroe, Gary. “O.L. Samuels” in Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida’s Self-Taught Artists. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003. 131. 2. “O.L. Samuels.” Orange Hill Art. Orange Hill Art, Inc., 2005. http://www.orangehillart.com/artistinfo.asp?ArtistID=1235. VERNACULAR ART 3. Abrams, Michael. “O.L. Samuels and his imaginative universe of animals, people and goblins: ‘I make things with the help of the spirit.’” from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection in Florida Wildflowers.Michael E. Abrams, 2008. http://www.flwildflowers.com/olsamuels/. 43 Mary Tillman Smith (1904 - 1995)

Born in 1904 in Martinsville, Mississippi, Mary Tillman Smith, also known as “Mary T,” was the third of thirteen children in her family who grew up working on a sharecropping farm. From an early age, her family knew she was very intelligent, but a severe hearing impairment made her speech difficult to understand and made her an outcast in local society. She went to school through the fifth grade, where she first found an outlet from her alienation by drawing in the dirt at recess and adding funny text to her drawings. Later, after two short and ill-fated marriages, Smith moved to Hazlehurst, Mississippi, for a fresh start. Smith raised a son by herself, living in a house built by the father of her child. There she gained a sense of independence and self-sufficiency that would eventually become key to the creation of her artwork.1 Her first major act of self-expression was to build a fence around her property out of scrap tin found in a nearby junkyard. White- washed and with strategic spacing, the fence became a place to display and contain her paintings and a space that represented everything she needed in the world. It eliminated the necessity to go into town, where the citizens assumed she was either unintelligent or crazy. Tillman used these false assumptions to her advantage in her paintings. Many of the “slogans” that accompanied her painted imagery were purposely written unintelligibly in order to reaffirm the town’s perception of her, and served as a sort of “keep out” sign, giving her privacy and security. Explaining why she rarely left her property, she said, “I can’t 2 hear nothing. I don’t need nothing. I got it all here. My church. The Lord. Jesus.” Mary Tillman Smith, (left) untitled, n.d., paint on wood, 24 x 32 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.11, (right) untitled, n.d., paint on wood, 23.75 x 23.75 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.10 Many of Mary T’s paintings include religious themes and iconography that are often conveyed with bold patterns, designs, and even nonsense words that can only be translated by Mary herself. She frequently painted abstracted images of Jesus and the Holy Trinity. not preserved after her death. Since then, however, many of her paintings have gained She also enjoyed painting pictures of her friends, neighbors, and pets.3 Using mostly house much attention and respect and have been exhibited in the United States and Europe. In paint on scrap material, Smith’s abstract expressionistic style draws many influences from 2013, a gallery in Paris, France, dedicated to exhibiting “art brut,” or folk art, hosted an the large billboards hovering over her property off State Highway 51. She decided to exhibition of Smith’s work titled Mississippi Shouting, and in 2015, Mary T’s work was counter the commercial advertisements above her by putting up a kind of advertisement included in exhibitions in France and Prague. To further cement her contribution to American of her own world views, and offering guidance to the public, using phrases like “Thank The art history, Mary T. Smith’s artwork is part of prestigious collections, including the Smithsonian Lord All the Way” and “Here I Am Don’t You See Me?”4 American Art Museum and the American Folk Art Museum. Around 1990, Mary T. Smith stopped painting, and five years later died penniless. Smith’s family could barely afford a funeral for her, and tragically, her home and yard were

1. Arnett, William. “Her Name is Someone” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 114. 2. Arnett, 114. 3. Yelen, Alice Rae. Passionate Visions of the American South. New Orleans Museum of Art, 1993. 328. VERNACULAR ART 4. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. “Mary Tillman Smith” in Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American: The Ronald and from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry A. Abrams, Inc., 2001. 144. 45 Henry Speller (1900 - 1997)

From the 1940s until his death, Henry Speller lived and worked from the confines of his neighborhood near Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. His works reflect the bright neon lights and vibrant garments of those who frequented the area in its heyday, as well as the everyday life of his surroundings. Born in rural Mississippi and raised by his grandmother, Speller spent his childhood amongst the sharecroppers of the Mississippi Delta. Drawing provided both an expressive outlet and a comfort to Speller, who used art as an escape from the boredom and anger that frequently accompanied his days.1 For Speller, an education was almost completely out of the question, as he was taken from school to help provide for the family before he could even read or write. At age eighteen, Speller left home, taking a number of jobs before eventually settling in Memphis in 1939. Speller’s move to Memphis would prove to be highly influential, exposing the artist to the Memphis Blues, whose rhythm and imagery appear frequently in Speller’s iconography. His move to Memphis also brought Speller to meet his third wife, Georgia Verges Speller, who was instrumental in encouraging her husband’s creative process. Speller’s best-known works feature toothy women with sometimes explicitly outlined genitalia, and the long hair and large breasts of his sexual fantasies. Their stylized dresses, resplendent with mechanical patterns, reflect the vibrant garments Speller often saw on the women of Beale Street.2 Speller’s women, in pencil and crayon on paper, assume an almost predatory feel within their stylized features, drawn by Speller with almost obsessive care. Many critics have also recognized in Speller’s works the vivid colors and asymmetrical patterning of African-American quilt making. This activity was in fact an early influence on Speller’s work. As a young child, Speller helped his grandmother in her quilting, and this Henry Speller, untitled, n.d., ink on paper, 14 x 17 inches, Gadsden Arts Center influence, like the trains and riverboats that captured his imagination as a child in the Delta, Permanent Collection, 2010.1.12 stayed with him and later emerged in his drawings.3

1. Arnett, William. “Henry Speller: Handy Man” in Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art of the South. Vol. 1. Eds. Paul Arnett & William Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 384. 2. Maresca, Frank and Roger Ricco. “Henry Speller” in American Self-Taught: Paintings and Drawings by Outsider Artists. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. 231. VERNACULAR ART 3. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. “Henry Speller” in Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: The Ronald and June from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection Shelp Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. 174. 47 Jimmy Lee Sudduth (1910 - 2007)

Jimmy Lee Sudduth was born on March 10, 1910, in Fayette County, Alabama. He grew up in the home of his stepfather and Native American mother, who practiced herbal medicine and taught Sudduth about plants and their properties. Sudduth worked as a gardener for many years and said that he could obtain 36 different colors from the clay near his home.1 He remembers creating his first painting when he was three or four years old. His first drawings in charcoal on wood washed away until he learned to add honey or syrup to make them last. He used a combination of substances including dirt, clay, berry juices, leaves, sugar, coffee grounds and ashes for his paintings. He says he used his fingers to apply his “paint” because, “The brushes die when I die.”2

Sudduth attended grade school and worked on farms until he enlisted in the army. He married his wife, Ethel, in the 1940s, and she remained by his side until her death in 1992. They adopted a son who became an artist, but he tragically died in a drowning accident. In 1968, Sudduth exhibited his work for the first time at Stillman College, in Tuscaloosa, the first of many venues to exhibit his work. Additional notable appearances included an invitation to exhibit and play his harmonica at the Smithsonian’s Bicentennial Festival of American Folk Art in 1976, and 1980 appearances on the Today Show and 60 Minutes. Sudduth was renowned for his inventive and joyful mud paintings on plywood. His subject matter ranged from southern mansions and cotton picking to Manhattan skylines; however, he mainly depicted the people and places of Fayette County. Until very late in life, he entertained relatives and friends with his music and painting demonstrations. Around the early 1990s, Sudduth could no longer physically collect the natural materials he traditionally used for pigments, and had to turn to using acrylic paints and sponges. He also began standardizing the sizes of his works to ¼, ½, and full sheets of plywood. These later works are strikingly different from the traditional mud paintings created earlier in his life. Sudduth died on September 2, 2007, at the age of 97, at the Fayette Medical Center in his hometown.

Jimmy Lee Sudduth, untitled, n.d., earth pigments on wood, 12.5 x 42.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.7

1. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. “Jimmy Lee Sudduth” in Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. 178. VERNACULAR ART 2. Arnett, William. “Cutting to the Slice” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 1. Eds. Paul Arnett and William Arnett. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 270. 49 Mose Tolliver (1920 - 2006)

Mose Tolliver was one of the first “self-taught” artists to gain prestige and recognition for the colorful pieces produced by his untrained hand.1 Although there have been several discrepancies on the exact date of his birth, Mose was said to have been born around 1920 in Montgomery County, Alabama.2 Born into a large family, he was constant- ly surrounded by his twelve brothers and sisters. After being sent to school at a young age, he decided to stop pursuing his education in order to help support his family—he worked his entire life doing odd jobs such as gardening, handy work, and painting houses. In the 1940s, Tolliver married the love of his life, Ms. Willie May Thomas of Ramer, Alabama. They had been childhood friends and eventually raised eleven children. In the 1960s, Tolliver suffered an incapacitating accident while working at a factory, making him unable to work. While many sources believe this to have been the turning point in his life, during which he began producing his paintings, Tolliver claimed he had always been creating art and just had time to focus on it after his accident.3 Mose Tolliver would create in a fury, setting a limit for himself early in the day, sometimes up to ten pieces, and he would not stop working until he had produced that amount. His images are created on house paint-encrusted pieces of plywood and include sexually explicit images of women, self-portraits, buses, birds, snakes, and fruit. He would attach the tab of a soda or beer can to his painting as a hanging device and display them throughout his home. As Tolliver continued to gain recognition, a local curator for the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art came to see his work and offered him his first solo exhibition, which tookplace in 1981. After his popularity began to surge on a national level, he was invited to exhibit at prestigious locations such as the Smithsonian Institution Corcoran Gallery, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the American Museum of Folk Art in New York. As the years passed, Tolliver became less dexterous and began to train his children to paint. Mose Tolliver, (left) Wild Moose Lady, n.d., paint on wood, 18.75 x 24 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, Although they were still his visions, his daughter Annie took over the act of “materializing” 2010.1.14, (right) untitled, n.d., paint on wood, 13 x 24 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2010.1.15 them, even down to his signature that marks each of his works: “Mose T” with the backwards “S.” Although Mose Tolliver passed away from pneumonia on October 30, 2006, his identity as a major icon of the Vernacular art movement lives on.

1. Kogan, Lee. “Mose Tolliver: Picture Maker” in Souls Grown Deep: African-American Art of the South. Vol. 1. Eds. Paul Arnett and William Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000. 338. 2. Weber, Marcia. “Mose Tolliver” in Marcia Weber Art Objects. Marcia Weber / Art Objects, Inc., n.d. www.marciaweberartobjects.com/ tolliverm.htm . VERNACULAR ART 3. Dunn, Robert A. “Mose Tolliver” in The Encyclopedia of Alabama. The Encyclopedia of Alabama, 22 May 2008. http://www.encyclope- from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection diaofalabama.org/article/h-1544 . 51 Felix “Harry” Virgous (b. 1948)

Felix “Harry” Virgous was born on October 30, 1948, in Woodstock, Tennessee. He spent the majority of his early life living in Memphis with his family. At a young age, Virgous was diagnosed with learning disabilities. When he was twelve years old, a critical playground accident severely injured his back. These two difficulties resulted in his attending elementary school for only four years, and he took up painting.

When his family moved to a new home in the early 1980s, Virgous found himself across the street from the artist Joe Light, a prolific Vernacular artist whose work littered his yard and house.1 It was then that Virgous set up an artist’s workshop in an outbuilding behind the house. It is thought Virgous called his private studio retreat “The Harry Club”2 and it was there that he began to seriously express himself as an artist. Using available materials (magazine ads, household odds and ends, and found objects), Virgous painted, collaged, and carved decorative and symbolic patterns, embellishing the interior and exterior of his studio. In 1987, artist Lonnie Holley discovered Felix Virgous and “The Harry Club” while travelling throughout the South seeking to discover other African-American Vernacular artists like himself. Within a few years, Virgous’s art began to be included in the growing number of Vernacular art exhibitions and catalogues. Virgous’s artwork is filled with bright colors and simplified forms that reveal messages on topics about which he cares deeply. His typical subject matter focuses on biblical stories, heroic images of Native Americans, music, nature, and contemporary urban issues. His Old Felix Virgous, Jonah and the Big Fish, n.d., collage, paint on board, 23.5 x 16.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center and New Testament imagery is sometimes expressed in contemporary urban settings, but Permanent Collection, 2010.1.16 they speak to the agelessness of time.3 His art “comments on black ghetto society by combining biblical stories with images from popular culture.”4

1. Conwill, Kinshasha and Arthur C. Danto. Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. 132. 2. Conwill and Danto, 132. 3. Conwill and Danto. 132. 4. Crown, Carol, ed. Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South. Art Museum of the University of Memphis, 2004. 21. VERNACULAR ART 5. Rosenak, Chuck and Jan Rosenak. Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists. New from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection York: Abbeville Press, 1990. 312. 53 Ruby C. Williams (b. 1920s)

Ruby C. Williams is a businesswoman, minister, grandmother, and artist. She can be found on Highway 60 in Hillsborough County, Florida, at her produce stand and walk-in gallery. You will know you are there when you see the brightly colored signs of acrylic on wood, which she originally created to attract produce customers. Today, people visit Williams’s stand for more than just fruits and vegetables. Williams was born sometime in the 1920s in Bealsville, Florida, a community founded by freed slaves in the 1860s. There she grew up, had a family, and started her produce business in the 1980s. She says she has been ministering all her life, and most of her work reflects that interest1. Her paintings tell stories from the Bible or from her own family and often have a moral. The viewer can sometimes see a little of her attitude toward those who want to tell her what and how she should paint in works such as “Tired of Being a Good Guy” (an alligator) and “Hey this is My Life.” Today the artist enjoys her fame, which has taken her to classrooms and galleries, both near and far. Williams loves to show visitors clippings of news stories about her art and will even let them take a picture of her with her work, if they ask permission2. She says seeing people smile when they look at her paintings makes her happy3. In 2004, Williams illustrated a children’s book titled: I am Ruby, and in 2005, the artist received the Florida Folk Life Award and was included in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum entitled On Their Own: Selected Self-Taught Artists. Ruby C. Williams, Piano Playing Cow I Give Better Buttermilk, n.d., paint on plywood, 48 x 24 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.13

1. Taylor, Jeanine. “Ruby C. Williams” in Jeanine Taylor Folk Art. Jeanine Taylor Folk Art, 2011. http://www.jtfolkart.com/artist/ruby-williams/. VERNACULAR ART 2. Crotty, D. “Ruby Williams” in Self-Taught Folk Art. D. Crotty, 2006. http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~dacrotty/ruby.html. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 3. Lott, Randall. “Ruby Williams’ Produce Stand and Art Gallery.” Folk Art Society of America, 2009. http://folkart.org/mag/ruby-williams. 55 Purvis Young (1943 - 2010)

Purvis Young was born in the Liberty City area of Miami and lived most of his life in Overtown, an inner city area now bisected by an interstate. He was arrested for breaking and entering (he says he never stole anything1) at age eighteen and spent three years in prison. It was during this time that he began to paint. He said that angels told him, “This is not your life. You’re going to have a different life. Listen and learn, Purvis.”2 Although he sold his works for upwards of $35,000, exhibited in major museums including the Smithsonian, and counted Jane Fonda as one of his patrons, he lived in near poverty most of his life. Young was a self-taught urban artist whose vibrant paintings could be seen on overpasses, broken furniture, old cars, and discarded boards. He often used broken pieces of wood to frame his work. He was self-educated, having researched art history extensively and been influenced by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rembrandt3. After hearing of “freedom walls” being painted in Detroit and Chicago, he created his own mural at Miami’s “Good Bread Alley.”4 This collection of paintings was visible from the interstate passing overhead. He also painted murals on the Overtown Branch Library and in a Miami Metro station. Purvis Young’s vibrant paintings often show “graffiti-like repetitive images” of traffic crowds, hovering angels, and running horses. The artist said the angels represent hope, the wild horses represent freedom, and eyes represent “the system.”5 His style is naïve, expressionistic, and symbolic. He produced thousands of works, even giving pieces away in his earlier years. Young suffered from diabetes and had numerous health issues in his last years. In a 2007 television segment, Geraldo Rivera called Purvis Young a “painter of the people,” and Jane Fonda commented on the “hopefulness of his work.”6 Since his death in 2010, several gallery owners and collectors have attempted to open a museum dedicated to the work of Purvis Young. These have had limited success in Miami and Ft Lauderdale, but a gallery owner in Panama City, Florida, hopes to open the Purvis Young Museum soon.

Purvis Young, untitled, n.d., collage, paint on wood, 24 x 43.5 inches, Gads- den Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2009.1.9 1. Purvis Young: Contemporary Urban Artist. Dir. David Seehausen. Accessory, 1997. Web. PurvisYoung.com, 2010. 2. Rivera, Geraldo. “From Ghetto to Grand.” Geraldo at Large, 2007. Web. YouTube.com 3. Arnett, William. “On Purvis Young’s Mind” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 390. 4. Maresca, Frank and Roger Ricco. “Purvis Young” in American Self-Taught: Paintings and Drawings by Outsider Artists. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. 273. 5. Arnett, William. “This is Life I See: Told by Purvis Young” in Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. Vol. 2. Eds. William Arnett VERNACULAR ART and Paul Arnett. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001. 403. from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 6. Rivera, 2007. 57 Glossary

aesthetic–pertaining to a sense of the beautiful; style–the artist’s chosen avenue for expression: re- concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed alistic, abstract, and expressionistic, are examples of styles. to intellectuality. subject matter–the person, place, thing or idea assemblage–the three-dimensional counterpart that is represented in a body of work. to collage; art that transforms found objects and non-art –using a recognizable image to carry an materials into sculpture through combining or constructing symbolic implied meaning. techniques such as gluing or welding. texture–surface quality of a work of art. This may expressionistic–painting in a style that conveys be seen (visual), felt (actual), or both. the emotions of the artist by using movement, along with strong contrast to convey meaning. vernacular–the language, art, or culture that is specific to, and representative of a place and time period. Folk Art–art made by people who have had little or no formal schooling in art; using styles handed down Vernacular Art–a style of art that represents through many generations, often in a particular region. the culture, lifestyle, symbolism, experiences, and beliefs of a place and time period. Naïve–style of painting characterized by simplified depiction of subjects, non-scientific perspective, bright visionary artist–an artist who uses his or her colors, and often literal depictions of imaginary scenes. thoughts or dreams as the subject for their art.

Outsider Art–term used to describe art created by artists who work outside of the mainstream art market. They often have not been trained in art and do not make art in order to sell it.

Regionalism–a style of art popular in the United States in the 1930’s that depicted the rural, farming Amer- ican lifestyle in a clear, simple, and idealized way.

self-taught–an artist who has learned to create art on his or her own instead of learning in a formal school or university setting.

self-portrait–a work of art that portrays the artist as the subject.

signature–the specific and unique way in which Mary L. Proctor, Self-Portrait, n.d., paint, glass on found window, 44.5 x 49 x 4.5 inches, Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection, 2011.2 an artist creates a body of work; a quality that runs through the artist’s entire body of work.

VERNACULAR ART from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection 59 Vernacular Art Resources

BOOKS Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art, Vol- ume Two, eds. William Arnett and Paul Arnett. Atlanta, American Self-Taught: Paintings and Drawings by Outsider Georgia: Tinwood Books, 2001. Artists by Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco with Lyle Rexer. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Self Taught Outsider, and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations, and Resources, 160. Jefferson: McFar- Creation Story: Gee’s Bend Quilts and the Art of Thorn- land & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003. ton Dial by Mark Scala. Nashville, Tennessee: The Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2012.

Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial by Joanne Cubbs FILMS and Eugene W. Metcalf. Indianapolis: Indiana: Delmoni- Mr. Dial Has Something to Say; an Art Original Film, co Books/Prestel, 2011. Alabama Public Television, 2007. History Refused to Die: The Enduring Legacy of African Purvis of Overtown; a film by David Raccuglia and American Art in Alabama by Horace Randall Williams, Shaun Conrad, Tinwood Media in Association with Karen Wilkin, and Sharon Holland with Introduction 77 Films, 2006. by William S. Arnett. Atlanta, Georgia: Tinwood Books, 2015.

I am Ruby by Sylvia McCardel Thomasson with paintings WEB RESOURCES by Ruby C. Williams; Atlanta, Georgia, Cardel Press, 2004. Gadsden Arts Center: http://www.gadsdenarts.org/ Self-Taught Art: The Culture and Aesthetics of American George Jacobs: Self-Taught Art: Vernacular Art, ed. Charles Russell. University Press of http://www.self-taughtart.com Mississippi, 2001.

Thornton Dial in the 21st Century by William Arnett, The American Folk Art Museum: John Beardsley, Alvia J. Wardlaw, and Jane Livingston. http://www.folkart-museum.org/ Atlanta, Georgia: Tinwood Books in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2006. The Foundation for Self-Taught American Artist: http:// www.foundationstaart.org Thornton Dial: Image of the Tiger, New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Museum The High Museum of Art Atlanta: http://www.high.org of American Folk Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and The American Center, 1993. The New Museum of Contemporary Art: http://www.newmuseum.org/ Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper by Bernard L. Herman. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina The Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Ren- Press in association with the Ackland Art Museum, 2011. wick Gallery: http://americanart.si.edu

Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art: The The Souls Grown Deep Foundation: Tree Gave the Dove a Leaf, Volume One, eds. William http://soulsgrowndeep.org/ Arnett and William S. Arnett. Atlanta, Georgia: Tinwood Books, 2000. Vernacular Art from the Gadsden Arts Center Permanent Collection is a project of the Gadsden Arts Center Quincy, Florida 850.875.4866 / www.gadsdenarts.org