Alabama Art History
with an emphasis on representational art
Introduction
This section of our catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "Alabama Art History." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in our Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to the articles and essays.
Following the links to Resource Library articles and essays are a listing of museums in the state which have provided materials to Resource Library for this or any other topic.
Listed after museums are links to online resources outside our website. Following these resources is information about offline resources including DVDs, paper-printed books, journals and articles. Our goal is to present complete knowledge relating to this section of Topics in American Art.
We recommend that researchers always search within Resource Library for additional material. Please see our page How to research topics not listed for more information.
(above: Anne Goldthwaite (1869-1944), Frances Greene Nix, c 1935-40, oil on canvas, 49.5 x 39.5 in., Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
In 1922, Goldthwaite became an instructor at the Art Students League, a position she would hold for over twenty years. She also continued to teach during summer sojourns in Alabama, offering advice to students at the Dixie Art Colony -- quote from The Johnson Collection
Resource Library articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art:
Beyond Moonlight and Magnolias: Contemporary Women Artists of Alabama
History Refused to Die-Alabama's African-American Self-Taught Artists in Context
Heart and Soul of the South: The Paintings of John Kelly Fitzpatrick (1888 - 1953)
Howard Cook: Drawings of Alabama; essay by Stephen Goldfarb
Regional African American Artists
Vintage Delights: Paintings & Bronzes from the Mason-Scharfestein Collection
Jimmy Rickles - A Retrospective Exhibition at Gadsden Museum of Arts
We recommend that researchers always search within Resource Library for additional material. Please see TFAO's page How to research topics not listed for more information.
(above: Anne Goldthwaite (1869-1944), Self-Portrait, c. 1920, 18.1 x 14.8 in, Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Anne Goldthwaite, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Alabama museums and other non-profit sources of Resource Library articles and essays
Anniston Museum of Natural History
Berman Museum of World History
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Other online information
Alabama State Capitol murals and sculptures from Wikipedia
About the Dixie Art Colony is an in-depth article about the formation and activities of the colony, accompanied by pictures of paintings by members, saying: "The colony was active for more than 14 years, from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s. It offered a very casual atmosphere in which artists were encouraged to experiment by exploring their creative side... The colonists' choice of subject matter could be classified as one of regionalism, an artistic focus that shunned city life in favor of common rural scenes." The article includes biographies of 10 featured colony artists accessed via clicking on the painting for each artist. Accessed 1/25
The Artistic Legacy of Alabama Polytechnic Institute is a 2019 exhibit at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University which says: "The artists, whose works today can also be seen at national museums around the world and universities across the country, captured modernism and international travel as well as campus and local scenes." Also see news release Accessed 11/19
The Bayou Painters describes an art colony active in Coden and Bayou la Batre, Alabama in the late 1940s and early 1950s; from Mobile Bay Wiki. Accessed July, 2015
Bill Christenberry: Brownies is a 2019 exhibit at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts which says: "Using a Brownie camera, Christenberry captured the rural landscapes of his home state of Alabama and he often focused his lens on Hale County, where he spent many summers as a child." Also see 12/15/16 article in The Georgetowner Accessed 12/19
CHRISTENBERRY: In Alabama is a 2019 exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art which says: "This exhibition's premise is threefold: honoring the artist's intimate, lifelong exploration of his native state; recognizing the wealth of Christenberry work collected in Alabama's art museums; and presenting the Christenberry family's creative lineage and legacy over four generations." Accessed 7/20
Dixie Art Colony / Alabama Gulf Coast Colony is a glossary entry from AskArt saying: "First located in Mobile County, Alabama from the early 1930s to the late 1940s and then in the fishing villages of Bayou La Batre and Coden on Alabama's western Gulf Coast between 1946 and 1953, the Dixie Art Colony evolved into the Alabama Gulf Coast Colony. Artists gathered at the latter colony from spring to fall and lived communally and painted the local scenery "en plein aire". The Dixie Art Colony was part of a more widespread post-United States Civil-War movement that continued into the 20th century." Accessed July, 2015
Dixie Art Colony: A Look At Its Lasting Legacy is an illustrated artcle documenting a 2014 exhibit about the colony held by the Dixie Art Colony Foundation. The article says: "This exhibition paints a nostalgic portrait of the Dixie Art Colony, which is thought to be the Deep South's first art colony. Although many of the colonists were considered "Sunday painters" several of them, most notably Kelly Fitzpatrick, were serious artists who later became icons in the world of Southern art. An extensive collection of private papers, journals and photographs were closely examined in preparation for this exhibition, some of which are included in the exhibition. The archives offer fascinating insight into life of the Dixie colony and its participants, while the original artwork offers a colorful glimpse of central Alabama's rural landscape."
A 2017 follow-up Dixie Art Colony: A Look At Its Lasting Legacy 2017 exhibit says: "The main exhibition, "Dixie Art Colony: A Look at its Lasting Legacy," included 70 pieces of framed artwork by artists associated with the Dixie Art Colony. Many of the works shown were from the DAC Foundation's Permanent Collection." Accessed 1/25
The Dixie Art Colony
Foundation "was founded as part of an
effort to place greater emphasis on the research, documentation, and preservation
of the legacy of Central Alabama's unique and historic Dixie Art Colony.
" Accessed 1/25
"Documentary sings praises of Fayette Art Museum" By Mark Hughes Cobb, May 13, 2012, Tuscaloosanews.com. Cobb writes about a documentary film about the creation of the Fayette Art Museum and artists in its collection titled "Treasures from the Rubble." Accessed January, 2016
The Encyclopedia of Alabama features a section titled Arts and Literature containing within Arts pages Decorative Arts, Photography, Painting, Sculpture, and the Plastic Arts. Biographies of several historic artists are included. Accessed July, 2015
The Fayette Art Museum website contains a list of historic Alabama artists featured in the mseum's collection. Accessed January, 2016
Genevieve McClure Southerland (1895 - 1953) was: "...an organizer of the Bayou Painters in South Alabama," another art colony located in Mobile, according to the Dixie Art Colony Foundation. Accessed 1/25
John Kelly Fitzpatrick (1888 - 1953) was a founding member of the Dixie Art Colony. His biography provided by the Dixie Art Colony Foundation provides four examples of his work. The biography says: "He was one of the founders of the Dixie Art Colony, the Alabama Art League, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art and was the first director and co-founder of the Montgomery Museum of Art School. During The Great Depression, a particularly tough time for artists, he participated in the US Treasury Department's Public Works of Art Project, also known as the New Deal Art Project, which was a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal economic recovery program." Accessed 1/25
John Kelly Fitzpatrick is the subject of a brief biography written by Margaret Lynne Ausfeld of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts published in The Encyclopedia of Alabama website. It says: "Painter and educator John Kelly Fitzpatrick (1888-1953) devoted his career to presenting the life of his rural central Alabama home in his art. During the 1920s and throughout the Great Depression, Fitzpatrick focused his attention on Alabama's rural landscape and its inhabitants during a socially and economically turbulent period in the state's history. An artist, art teacher, and promoter of visual-arts organizations in the region, Fitzpatrick was one of the state's most prominent and important advocates for art and art education." Accessed 1/25
(above: J. Kelly Fitzpatrick, Early Industry of Dale County, 1938, oil on canvas, Ozark, AL Post Office. Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Lee M. Hoffman: A Legacy is a 2019 exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art which says: "Lee Hoffman exhibited nationally and was a beloved painter and art personality of the Mobile area along with his wife and fellow artist, Kaye Wall Hoffman. This exhibition shows the diverse and ever changing talents of Hoffman's career from 1960 until his passing in 2010." Accessed 1/20
Magic City Realism: Richard Coe's Birmingham is a 2018 exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art which says: "In the wake of the Great Depression, Birmingham experienced a remarkable transformation that helped shape the city as we know it today. Artist Richard Coe, an Alabama native, documented the city's rapidly changing urban fabric in his prints and paintings. Magic City Realism: Richard Coe's Birmingham brings together over 60 of Coe's images of the city from this decade for the first time." Also see AL.com 3/22/18 article and Richard Blauvelt Coe at Bhamwiki Accessed 5/18
Marguerite Edwards. Public Faces and Private Spaces is a 2021 exhibit at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts which says: "Edwards is a portrait painter celebrated for her depictions of fifteen Alabama Supreme Court Justices and seven Appellate Court Judges. Edwards has also captured the visages of United States Senators and other dignitaries. Alongside her portrait practice, Edwards creates stunning still lifes and landscapes in oil paint, pastel, charcoal, and pencil." Accessed 12/21
Our Shared Heritage: Alabama Artists from the Collection is a 2019 exhibit at the Huntsville Museum of Art which says: "During the run of Our Shared Heritage, the Chan Gallery will become a microcosm of Alabama as seen through the eyes of artists past and present who have captured the people, places and traditions of our state." Accessed 3/19
The Quilts of Gee's Bend from NPR including a February 4, 2003 15 minute audio recording. Accessed July, 2015
Quilts of Gee's Bend in Context project at Auburn University. Accessed July, 2015
New Deal Art in Alabama from wpamurals.com. Accessed July, 2015
Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama is a comprehensive collection of 20th-century African American art. Web page contains link to 8-minute video. Accessed January, 2016
The Sarah Carlisle Towery Art Colony website. See history section. Accessed July, 2015
Sewn Together: Two Centuries of Alabama Quilts is a thorough web-based resource based on an exhibition at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts from January 28 - April 16, 2017. The exhibition website says: "This online exhibit presents examples of Alabama-made quilts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries drawn from the extraordinary collections of the Alabama Department of Archives and History and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. They are presented as "exemplary pairs," illustrating comparisons of the various techniques, themes, and traditional patterns as seen throughout two hundred years of Alabama quilt making." Twelve types of quilting are explained, plus an interactive map that " highlights the origins of the 28 quilts displayed in the Sewn Together exhibition." Accessed 1/25
2017 exhibit at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts which says: "The quilts in this exhibition are presented as "exemplary pairs" demonstrating and illustrating comparisons of the varied techniques, themes, and traditional patterns as seen in two hundred years of Alabama quilt making." Accessed 3/17
A Southern Impression: The Printmakers of Alabama, an online exhibition from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts contains biographies of Alabama printmakers, interpretative text and additional sources of information for further study.
Sidney Dickinson: A Connecticut Yankee in King Cotton's Court is a 2017 exhibit at the Greenville County Museum of Art which says: "Dickinson traveled to Alabama in 1926, when he was commissioned to paint the portrait of former Alabama Governor Thomas Kilby. During this visit, he also painted the two Montgomery landscapes, which feature a large central building with chimney-like projections." Accessed 12/17
Online video
April, 2023 screenshot via Google video search:
Books, listed by year of publication, with most recently published book listed first
Alabama Folk Pottery, by Joey
Brackner. 352 pages. Publisher: University Alabama Press; 1 edition (September
29, 2006). ISBN-10: 0817315098. 
ISBN-13:
978-0817315092. Review: "A major addition to the study of southern
pottery as well as Alabama history and art. I'm truly impressed with the
extraordinary number of potters Brackner has uncovered and the wide range
of evidence he uses to shed light on their achievements." -Charles
(Terry) Zug, author of Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North
Carolina" (text and image courtesy of Amazon.com)
The Bayou Painters: South Alabama's Art Colony (1946-1953); Mobile Museum of Art, January 13-March 26, 2006., By Mobile Museum of Art. Published by Mobile Museum of Art, 2006. ISBN 1893174069, 9781893174061. 40 pages. "Catalog of an exhibition of art by "the bayou painters", an art colony in the Mobile/Bayou laBatre/Coden area which florished from 1946 to 1953 but continued in diminished form for a number of years after."
Art of the New South: Women Artists of Birmingham 1890 - 1950. 99 pages. Birmingham Historical Society (2004). ISBN-10: 0943994292. ISBN-13: 978-094399429. Product Description: "Published in conjunction with the exhibition: "Art of the New South: Women Artists in Birmingham 1890 - 1950," organized by the Birmingham Historical Society at the Birmingham Public Library in late 2004. This oversized heavily-illustrated book contains information about and paintings by Birmingham-area artists Caroline Lovell, Carrie Montgomery, Carrie Hill, Lucille Douglass, Alice Edith Rumph, Della Dyer, Hannah Eliot, and Willie McLaughlin." text courtesy of Amazon.com
Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts, by John Beardsley, William Arnett), Paul Arnett, Jane Livingston. 432 pages. Tinwood Books (August 2002). ISBN-10: 0971910405. ISBN-13: 978-0971910409. Product Description: "Since the 19th century, the women of Gee's Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. Beautifully illustrated with 350 color illustrations, 30 black-and-white illustrations, and charts, Gee's Bend to Rehoboth is being·released in conjunction with a national exhibition tour including The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art." text courtesy of Amazon.com
Alabama Art, by Nall. 128 pages. Publisher: Black Belt Press (July 2000). ISBN-10: 1880216590. ISBN-13: 978-1880216590. "Nall's retrospective to native artists from Alabama is a must for anyone interested in the work of this great artist. Although not currently as well known as the artist he studied under, Salvatore Dali, he is fast becoming a modern day Dali in his own right. Although focusing on artists from Alabama, Nall's personal contribution, in the form of an artistic interpretation of each artist is an example of his mastery. I cannot recommend the book or the artist highly enough." quoted from Amazon Customer Reviews. November 4, 2002. By Sam Long
Alabama Impact: Contemporary Artists with Alabama Ties, By Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art, Paul W. Richelson, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville Museum of Art. Published by Huntsville Museum of Art, 1995. ISBN 1885820011, 9781885820013. 84 pages. "Catalog for an exhibition held March 11-May 7, 1995 at the Mobile Museum of Art, and July 2-September 3, 1995 at the Huntsville Museum of Art."
Made in Alabama: A State Legacy, By E. Bryding Adams, Leah Rawls Atkins. Published by Birmingham Museum of Art, 1995. ISBN 0931394406, 9780931394409. 392 pages
Revelations: Alabama's Visionary Folk Artists, by Kathy Kemp, Keith Boyer. 224 pages. Crane Hill Publishers; 1st edition (June 1994). ISBN-10: 1881548074. ISBN-13: 978-1881548072
In View of Home: Alabama Landscape Photographs : [exhibition] April 23-June 1, 1989, Huntsville Museum of Art., By Huntsville Museum of Art. Published by Huntsville Museum of Art, 1989
The Traditional Pottery of Alabama: Essays by E. Henry Willett and Joey Brackner, By E. Henry Willett, Joey Brackner, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama State Council on the Arts and Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts. Published by Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1983. ISBN 0892800208, 9780892800209. 70 pages. "An exhibition jointly sponsored by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Humanities, with the assistance of the Folk Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts."
Black Belt to Hill Country: Alabama Quilts from the Robert and Helen Cargo Collection ; Birmingham Museum of Art, Dec. 13, 1981-Jan. 24, 1982; Montgomery Museum of Art, Sept. 16-Nov. 14, 1982, By Robert Cargo, Birmingham, Ala. Museum of Art, Montgomery Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Ala.), Helen Cargo, Ala Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Robert and Helen Cargo, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Ala. Museum of Fine Arts. Published by Birmingham Museum of Art?, 1982. 92 pages
Alabama's Aboriginal Rock Art, by Bart Henson. 37 pages. Publisher: Alabama Historical Commission (1979). ASIN: B0006XD7WE. (text courtesy of Amazon.com)
Historic Sites of Jefferson County, Alabama, By Carolyn Green Satterfield, Jefferson County Historical Commission (Ala.), Published by Printed by the Gray Printing Co., 1976. 166 pages
The Art of the Alabama Indians, by Robert O Mellown. 43 pages, Publisher: University of Alabama Art Gallery (1976). ASIN: B0006CP1DI (text courtesy of Amazon.com)
Alabama artists; A paper presented to the Ionian Club, February 6, 1958. Comp. from scrap books and records of the Alabama Art League, by Mildred Abrams Hill
Note: Google Books and Amazon.com searches for books were made by TFAO in December, 2008.
Articles
Vicki L. Ingham: "Women Artists of Birmingham, 1890-1950" American Art Review September-October 2004 (Volume XVI, Number 5)
Carolyn Shafer Murphy: "The Blount Corporate Art Collection" American Art Review May-June 1999 (Volume XI, Number 3)
Lynn Barstis Williams: "South Alabama's Art Colony" American Art Review January-February 2006 (Volume XVIII, Number 1)
See TFAO's letters requesting information on further resources.
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