Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Florida Highwaymen

I ran across an article entitled "The Highwaymen" by Elizabeth Hoover. This article was about a group of young self-taught black artists in the midst of racial strife in the 1950's - 1960's who painted Florida landscapes. Their works were their way of a deflection against the times of despair.The original members were James Gibson, Alfred Hair, Harold Newton and Livingston Roberts - two of this group formed a relationship with a white painter/artist Albert Backus and eventually labeled themselves "The Highwaymen" who painted sometimes only from memory, and who sold these beautiful paintings from the trunks of their cars. What's even more interesting and is that out of the 26 Highwaymen, there was only one female, Mary Ann Carroll. Their works are breathtakingly surreal and a wonderful historic tribute to Florida's natural beauty.

2 comments:

  1. I did a bit of digging, Ms Sweetsugar, to see if I could see some of the actual paintings. I like Backus's "Jamaican Fisherman" and "Hurricane" paintings especially.
    Here's a link I discovered that you might find interesting too.

    Kat

    http://www.highwaymenart.net/artists/Mary_Ann_Carroll.htm

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  2. And a wonderful thankyou Poetikat....I did have a link for Caroll on the site but I welcome yours as well!!!!! Thanks kindly!!!

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