Overview
A lack of formal art training presented no barrier for the artists included in this installation of art from the MMFA’s permanent collection. Inspired by their own sense of invention and creativity, they made works that today stand alongside the works of trained artists of the past, recognized for their distinctive use of materials and their unusual perspectives on otherwise common subjects.
The MMFA has built its collection of works by Self-Taught Artists since 1982, and many of these examples are by natives of our own state of Alabama. Artists such as Mose Tolliver (Mose T) and Bill Traylor were residents of Montgomery, while others like quilters Mary Maxtion, Roberta Jemison, and the mixed-media master Jimmy Lee Sudduth lived and worked in rural West Alabama.
To appreciate the works of these uniquely gifted artists is to understand that human creativity has no bounds and that art arises at all times and in all places from the deepest wellspring of the human condition.
Featured image: Bernice Sims (Georgiana, Alabama, 1926–2014), Blueberry Picking, date unknown, acrylic on Masonite, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association Purchase, 2003.14.2
To appreciate the works of these uniquely gifted artists is to understand that human creativity has no bounds and that art arises at all times and in all places from the deepest wellspring of the human condition.
Organizer
Organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama.
Sponsor
Support for this exhibition was provided by lead sponsor Alabama Power Foundation with additional support from sponsors Mr. Will Hill Tankersley and Dr. Kristin Tankersley and co-sponsors Balch & Bingham, LLP, and AmeriFirst Bank.
Gallery
