UNFILTERED VISIONS: Self-Taught Art at NOMA
Henry Darger
American, Illinois, 1892–1973
Hurry It’ll Explode Any Minute Now (recto), There It Explodes. It Sounds Like a
Volcanic Roar (verso), from The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the
Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child
Slave Rebellion, ca. 1945–1965
Pencil, watercolor, and collage on paper
Museum purchase, Lee Friedlander Fund, 2003.70
Henry Darger lived as a recluse in the same Chicago apartment for forty years, only
interacting with others at his menial jobs and at Catholic Mass, which he attended
sometimes four or five times a day. His life’s work as an artist did not become known
until after his death, when his landlord discovered a narrative epic of war and peace he
had begun some sixty years earlier: the 15,145-page, thirteen-volume illustrated story of
the Vivian girls, along with numerous other drawings and writings.
Darger was a keen colorist, draftsman and collagist, and in this excerpt from his
masterpiece he juxtaposed a verdant landscape with soft peach clouds, drew sensitive
lines to define form, and affixed hand-drawn and commercially produced cut-outs for
texture and depth. This lush landscape initially gives a sunny impression—pastel colors,
an abundance of flowers and children playing—but becomes unsettling as playful
interaction transforms into frightened expressions accompanied by hand-written text:
“HURRY iT-LL EXPLODE ANY MiNUTE.” Looming danger surrounds the characters:
the seven heroic Vivian girls, and the naked, often hermaphroditic child slaves they seek
to free from the Glandelineans, an army of malevolent adults.
Explore the reverse side of this work on the iPad below.
Trace the Vivian girls’s adventure through the explosion, and note the appearance of the
Glandelinians, adult soldiers who terrorize the child slaves and the Vivian girls.
This side (recto) of this painting will be on display until Sunday, June 12. The reverse
side (verso) will be on display from Tuesday, June 14 through Sunday, October 9.
Clementine Hunter
American, Louisiana, 1896/7–1988
Melrose Plantation Quilt, ca. 1960
Cotton fabric and paper
Gift of Ryan F. Robert, 80.159
Clementine Hunter’s quilt documents her life on Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches,
Louisiana where the artist, never enslaved, worked with her family picking cotton and
pecans. Each architectural structure designates an area of plantation life. Melrose
Plantation House (top center) was the central family home where Hunter tended to the
garden, and laundered and sewed clothing. Hunter worshipped in the church (beneath)
and lived in the small house (center left). Appliqués of various
shapes form the buildings, trees, and figure plowing.
In Melrose Plantation Quilt, there is no actual “quilting” or
batting at all. Using remnants of cloth, Hunter arranged blocks of
brightly colored fabric on a backing of repurposed commercial
packing paper. A small, partially hidden mailing address remains:
“1710 Valence St., New Orleans, LA 70115.”
Back view
David Butler
American, Louisiana, 1898–1997
Windmill with Elephants and Cowboys Riding
Horses, 1975
Paint on tin, wood, and plastic
Gift of the artist, 76.260
Inspired by visions from his dreams, which he said were directives from God, David
Butler created an imaginative world of hand-cut whirligigs made from weathered
roofing tin. With a modified axe head and hammer, Butler skillfully cut and flattened tin
pieces into various shapes and fantastic figures. In Windmill with Elephants and
Cowboys Riding Horses, a windmill rotates in front, complete with small wood and tin
chairs that dangle as if on a Ferris wheel. Behind, silhouettes of cowboys and elephants
sit among playful subjects painted in bold colors and loose geometric patterns. The
composition is enhanced by found objects such as a plastic doll leg attached to the
rudder in the back. Butler has created a moving fantasy.
William Dawson
American, Alabama, 1901–1990
Picture of Josene, 1980
Acrylic on paper
The Robert P. Gordy Collection, 88.117
Primarily a wood carver, Dawson made approximately 150 paintings similar to his
sculptures in both theme and style. Dawson’s compositions sometimes feature human
figures or animals dominated by their white eyes and teeth, which are surrounded by a
strong, often black outline.
New Orleans artist Robert Gordy, the donor of this work, is one of many twentiethcentury trained artists who were inspired by the raw expression of then little known selftaught artists.
Thornton Dial
American, Alabama, 1928–2016
Two Figures (Black and White), ca. 1988
Acrylic on metal, tape
Gift of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, 2009.115
“I can’t read and spell but I got a mind and I can speak with any man. I might say
something in my art that somebody ain’t never heard before.” –Thornton Dial
A gentle, dignified, and deeply intuitive man, Thornton Dial lived through sixty years of
changing race relations in Alabama before executing this sculpture. In Two Figures,
Dial used his professional skills as a welder and experience as a housepainter to use
found materials like metal, acrylic paint, and tape in this portrayal of an eye-to-eye
confrontation between a black man and white man.
Thornton Dial
American, Alabama, 1928–2016
Keeping the Pigs from Rooting, 1988
Paint, carpet, wood, epoxy, metal
Gift of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, 2011.66
This work of Dial’s shows the artist’s early interest in multi-dimensional works, his
inventive use of materials at hand, and his layering of materials and meaning. In this
work, the female form and pig are made of the painted underside of a rug, while the
pig’s head protrudes from the irregular-shaped wood surface. A yellow metal object, an
invention of Dial’s, is positioned in the hand of the woman and also seen in situ on the
pig’s face in white paint. This device is meant to keep the animal from gathering his own
food and wandering away from home. When it swings forward, the center rod reaches
the ground, but the pig’s snout cannot reach it, keeping him dependent on his own
trough. In the context of Dial’s symbolic world, this might suggest the concerns of
women keeping their men close to the hearth.
Thornton Dial
American, Alabama, 1928–2016
Stung by the Wasp and the Cross We Have to
Bear, 1992
Paint, carpet, wood, epoxy, metal, paint can lids
Gift of William Arnett, 93.117
This work on canvas, which appears abstract, is dominated by an overlying knotted rope
and a black-and-white male figure with a mask-like face. Composed of carpet, a
destroyed pair of pants, burlap, and paint, the figure spreads his limbs to every quadrant
of the composition. At the top right, a woman’s torso is crushed under the oppressive
male, as she attempts to flee his outstretched hand. A tiger crowds the bottom of the
work, his head aligned, perhaps symbolically, with the head of the woman. In Dial’s
work, the tiger is a repeated image that represents strength, tenacity, and the survival
instinct that he used to express the tragedies and triumphs of black life.
Dial created a chaotic feeling in this work through his staccato brushstrokes and circular
movement that he achieved by occupying the negative space with found objects such as
paint can lids and scraps of wood.
Sam Doyle
American, South Carolina, 1906–1985
No More We Fear, 1982
Paint on roof tin
Gift of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen,2008.85
Doyle was raised in the Gullah community of St. Helena Island,
off the coast of South Carolina. The Gullah culture and language, of which vestiges still
exist today, was brought from West Africa via the slave trade. The text in this work is
taken from an anti-slavery Christmas hymn written in 1863 for a St. Helena church, not
long after Union Forces had freed the slaves there.
Doyle depicts the horrors of slavery using enamel house paint on recycled roofing tin.
On the bottom left, an African-American slave driver blows a horn that was used to
announce the lashing of a slave. Above the whip-wielding figures, a row of fluffy cotton
suggests the fields where the slaves were forced to labor. Doyle displayed his art in his
yard, which he referred to as the “Nationwide Outdoor Art Gallery.”
Baltimore Glassman (Paul Darmafall)
American, Maryland, 1925–2003
Valley Forge, ca. 1990
Paint and Glass on Masonite
Gift of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, 93.396
Using found broken glass scoured from his neighborhood streets, Paul Darmafall,
known as the Baltimore Glassman, created art that reflected his patriotism and respect
for the military, for which he served in World War II. In Valley Forge, a standing soldier
who bears a hat, gun, and a symbolic aircraft is surrounded by busts of George
Washington, text alluding to freedom of speech, and a Purple Heart medal of honor. The
Glassman notes his interest in the Bible by citing the Book of Esther as well as his belief
in self-sufficiency, the “Fresh Air Cure,” and the evils of electricity and air conditioning.
The Glassman made the outdoors his studio and often hung his finished works to trees
or fences for passersby to see.
William Hawkins
American, Ohio, born Kentucky, 1895–1990
Last Supper No. 9, 1987
Enamel paint and collage on masonite
Gift of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, 2011.59
After finding a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper featuring African-American
apostles, Hawkins re-imagined the iconic image himself. He said, “I don’t copy what I
see, I make it better.”
Hawkins playfully assigned the central figure, Jesus Christ, the visage of musician Stevie
Wonder. The eleven disengaged apostles are depicted through a motley collection of
fashion magazine portraits, cartoons, and painterly abstraction. Their “sacred” supper
consists of common American fare, some humorously still bearing the magazine
captions of “stuffed cabbage,” “linguini with sauce,” and “spaghetti.” Perhaps he
references the significance of the original image through his use of silver paint and the
“gilded” frame of painted arabesque patterns.
Although Hawkins spent his adult life in Columbus, Ohio, he never forgot his Kentucky
roots, recorded by his signature on the bottom of the composition.
Gustav Klumpp
American, New York, born Germany, 1902–1980
Reclining Female Nude, n.d.
Oil on Canvas
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., 92.971
Klumpp immigrated to New York City in 1921, where he worked in the printing industry.
His artwork gained a wider exposure post-retirement when New York Times art critic
John Canaday selected it for a review as part of the exhibition Art of the Elders of
Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1970. Using traditional materials, Klumpp
delighted in painting the classical theme of the female nude.
Connoisseurs and collectors who champion self-taught art have played a critical role in
the development of the field by increasing the visibility of these artists and their work.
Herbert Hemphill, a founding trustee of the American Folk Art Museum and the donor
of this work, was one such collector who recognized NOMA’s early commitment to selftaught art.
Charlie Lucas
American, Alabama, born 1951
Man with Lantern, ca. 1987–1988
Assembled metal objects
Gift of Kurt A. Gitter, MD and Alice Rae Yelen, 2010.224
A head made of welded car parts with jagged facial features bears the marks and
discoloration of a blowtorch. Car pipes transform into arms and legs that are soldered
onto a rusted gas tank torso. This “tin man”—a nickname Lucas also gave to himself—
grasps a skeletal lantern and stands on a car tire rim.
Lucas drew his greatest inspiration from his great-grandfather, a blacksmith. Deeply
spiritual, Lucas likened his early art-making to “recycling” himself: “You can take the
scrap from the bottom of the heap and breathe new life into it.” He likened the rust and
decay of this metal creation to the bumps and bruises of his own life.
Joe Light
American, Tennessee, 1934–2005
Flower Garden, n.d.
Acrylic on masonite
Gift of Kurt A. Gitter, MD and Alice Rae Yelen, 92.456
While serving eight years in a Nashville penitentiary, Joe Light transformed himself and
converted to Judaism. Less than a decade later, he started painting lively works that
expressed his personal philosophies and addressed racial issues, sometimes
accompanied by text espousing morality.
This simple landscape, comprised of colorful outlined forms, represents nature’s vast
and irrepressible potential. Flowers that may symbolize the female form and
motherhood (he had ten children) contrast the tall imposing flower symbol of the male
and the artist’s interest in humankind.
Sister Gertrude Morgan
American, Louisiana, born Alabama, 1900–1980
Charity Hospital Fan, ca. 1960–1970
Acrylic, graphite and ink on cardboard
Museum purchase, Lee Friedlander Fund, 2004.1
A gifted painter and poet, Sister Gertrude Morgan passed out her hand-constructed and
painted fans during her prayer sessions in her Everlasting Mission. This fan depicts
Sister Gertrude with her savior Jesus Christ in an airplane bound for the New
Jerusalem. Sister Gertrude, who often painted herself into her imagery, dressed in white
as Christ’s bride, said, “He [Christ] have taken me out of the black robe and crowned me
out in white. We are now in revelation. He married me, I’m his wife.”
Sister Gertrude probably received treatment at Charity Hospital, which cared for New
Orleans’s indigent sick. The phone number cited here was that of the hospital during her
lifetime.
Sister Gertrude Morgan
American, Louisiana, born Alabama, 1900–1980
Seven Last Plagues, ca. 1970
Acrylic and/or tempera on weathered wood door
Gift of Preservation Hall in memory of Allan Jaffe, 2004.313
Sister Gertrude Morgan was a missionary and artist who preached her gospel through
lively painting and music. She had a series of powerful revelations, the first at the age of
28, that inspired her to leave her husband and begin a life of preaching. She moved to
New Orleans from her native Alabama in 1939 and established a mission in the Gentilly
neighborhood, where she held vibrant revivals.
Sister Gertrude incorporated text into her paintings—often biblical passages from the
book of Revelation—and illustrated each phrase from the passage. Painted on a
weathered plank door, Seven Last Plagues includes a citation from Revelations 15:1
interspersed with interracial angels dressed in white. The combination of vibrant
images, visual references and biblical passages is central to all of Sister Gertrude’s work.
Ike Morgan
American, Texas, born 1958
Portrait of George Washington, ca. 1990
Ink and pastel on paper
Museum purchase, Robert P. Gordy Fund, 97.4
Known for his series of presidents, Ike Morgan rendered George Washington in large
blocks of pastel colors, incorporating the white of the paper as the President’s white hair
and ruffled shirt, and detailed with lines from continuous pen strokes. A skilled
draftsman, Morgan’s works are inspired from photographs of presidents and pop
culture figures to which he adds intensity and depth.
Diagnosed as chronic schizophrenic at age nineteen following the murder of his
grandmother, Morgan spent seventeen years at the Austin State Hospital, where he
began painting his own “personal visions.” Currently stable, he has reentered society
and lives independently in a state run apartment complex where he continues to be
nurtured by his obsessive art-making.
James (J.P.) Scott
American, Louisiana, 1922–2003
Shrimp Boat, n.d.
Paint, wood, plastic, linoleum, vinyl, metal,net/fiber
Gift of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, 92.464
Scott, who lived and worked in the small waterways of Louisiana’s bayou country,
constructed this model shrimp boat from objects salvaged from trash heaps near his
home in Lafitte, Louisiana. He meticulously crafted the hull from wood and metal,
adding empty plastic tape rolls as hanging buoys. The above-deck captain’s quarters are
complete with plastic window panes and topped with a fog horn made from the upper
portion of a Gatorade bottle; the linoleum-sealed deck features vinyl covered ice and fish
storage areas. The green string rigging suspends pieces of real shrimp nets and a fishing
apparatus. Once completed, Scott placed his boats outside on display for passers-by to
see, and would not sell them until he considered them finished.
Herbert Singleton
American, Louisiana, 1945–2007
God Garden, n.d.
Paint on solid wood door
Gift of Robert A. Roth, in honor of E. John Bullard, 2012.51
A master carver, Singleton incised these door panels with renderings of Adam and Eve’s
creation, temptation, and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. A tree of knowledge
bearing apples forms a cross between the four panels. Sinuous black snakes frame the
scenes, bringing attention to the biblical lesson that malevolent temptation is
omnipresent and encompassing.
Singleton understood the constant allure of temptation. He lived in the Algiers area of
New Orleans amidst a culture of drug use and violence, and spent at least thirteen years
in and out of Louisiana State Penitentiary. Expressing man’s responsibility for himself,
Singleton, not a church-going man, said, “No matter if you are going to a preacher, a
priest, a psychiatrist, a witch doctor, or a voodoo queen, you’re only getting confidence
by proxy. Can’t nobody solve the problem but the person himself.”
Jimmy Lee Sudduth
American, Alabama, 1910–2007
Man and Tractor, n.d.
Mud and paint on plywood
Gift of Dr. Kurt M. Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, 2011.63
“I paint with my finger cause that brush don’t wear out…When I die, the brush dies.” –
Jimmy Lee Sudduth
Rarely utilizing canvas, paints or brushes, he predominantly painted with his fingers on
plywood with clay, mud, sand, soot, or natural kaolin, finding most of his materials
within walking distance of his home. Boasting thirty-six colors of mud sourced directly
from the rich Alabama clay, Sudduth used sugar to bind the mud, coffee to lighten the
color and charcoal to darken it. These combinations created a unique material that gives
a textural quality to his work.
Never compromising his technique, when art dealers asked him to use paint, he
continued to mix mud with it, as seen in these tractor wheels. Sudduth creates a subtle
range of colors that makes it difficult to differentiate between where the applied mud
stops and the wood ground begins.
Purvis Young
American, Florida, 1943–2010
Angels over the City, 1989
Acrylic on fabric and wood
Gift of Friends of Contemporary Art, 92.509
Like the angels that watch over the decaying city, Young said,“Sometimes I cry when I
see what happens to people.”
Young walked and biked daily through his Overtown neighborhood in Miami, where he
also gleaned his imagery, inspiration and discarded materials. “The street is life,” Young
said. A spiritual man, he transformed landscapes of sorrow into visions of hope. Here
the angels—Young’s recurring symbol for good—are placed in close proximity to the selfdestructive city, suggesting the artist’s sustained optimism amidst human strife.
This painting’s unconventional “frame” is a construction of diverse wooden parts
attached to the borders of the work. The frame serves as a continued pictorial surface for
Young’s quick, gestural brushstrokes.