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LEEPA announces opening of Highwaymen exhibits
| Article published on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008 |
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| Two Highwaymen exhibitions are on display at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art from Jan. 27-March 9. |
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TARPON SPRINGS - The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art hosts an opening reception for two exhibitions: The Highwaymen and Highwaymen Paintings, on Saturday, Jan. 29, 7 to 9 p.m., at the museum.
Both exhibits feature the work of Florida’s Highwaymen artists. The Highwaymen, is a national touring exhibition from the collection of Geoff Cook being circulated by the Orange County Regional History Center, Orlando. Highwaymen Paintings is a premiere exhibition of 22 paintings from the family collection of George Algernon Speer Jr.
Speer was a prominent prosecuting attorney in Sanford, Fla., and one of the early collectors of Highwaymen art.
The Highwaymen were a group of 26 African-American self-taught artists who lived and painted in Fort Pierce and Brevard County, Fla. Most notably, the group included Alfred Hair, the artist who developed the fast method of oil painting that came to define the style of the Highwaymen, and Harold Newton, an artist who specialized in painting landscapes.
A.E. (Beanie) Backus, a southern white and well-known Florida landscape artist, is credited with teaching and encouraging Hair and Newton to paint. The other 24 Highwaymen, including Mary Ann Carroll, the only female in the group, were apprentices to either Newton or Hair and each developed their own distinctive style, brush strokes and trademarks.
The Highwaymen started painting in the 1950s and enjoyed successful artistic careers throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s. They painted many of their landscape scenes in an hour or less and sold their art to motels, banks, doctors’ and lawyers’ offices, restaurants and the general public. Many paintings were sold out of the trunks of their cars, often before the oils had time to dry.
For many of the Highwaymen, painting and selling landscape art was an escape from their laborious jobs in factories, orange groves and fields. A renewed interest in the Highwaymen began in the 1990s when collectors came to recognize their contribution to Florida’s artistic and natural history. The value of their work has increased dramatically from the $25 - $35 originally paid. Today the paintings are worth thousands of dollars and are receiving national acclaim.
The cost to attend the opening reception is free to most Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art members and $10 per person for non-members. The exhibitions will run from through March 9.
Special Highwaymen events
An lecture, The Story of the Highwaymen by Gary Monroe, author of "The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Landscape Painters and Harold Newton: The Original Highwayman" is set for Sunday, Jan. 27, 3 p.m. in ithe Fine Arts Auditorium. Cost is $5.
A documentary, "The Highwaymean: Florida's Outsider Artists, will be presented on Thursday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m., in the Fine Arts Auditorium. The film is 58 minutes. Admission is free. The documentary also will be shown in the exhibition galleries during opening hours.
A Highwaymen Family Festival is set for Saturday, Feb. 16, 1 to 4 p.m., in the fine arts lobby. The free event will feature the Kuumba Drummers & Dancers, landscape workshops led by Highwaymen artists and children’s art activities.
The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is on the Tarpon Springs Campus of St. Petersburg College at 600 Klosterman Road on the corner of Belcher Road. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; evening hours are Thursday, 5 to 9, and Sunday hours are 1 to 5 p.m.
Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and free to children and students with ID. Sunday admission is free to all and docent tours are offered at 2 p.m. The Museum is closed major holidays.
For information or directions contact the Museum at 727-712-5762.
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Article published on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008
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