“As a painter, there is no genre of art nor specific artists who have had more impact on my critical thinking, and relationship with my own artistic journey, than the American outsider artists. Clementine Hunter (from whom I borrowed my signature), Mose Tolliver, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Willie White, M.C. “5 Cent” Jones, Thornton Dall, and dozens of others have had direct influences on me. These artists made art from nothing but their hearts, souls, perceptions, and worldviews. All of these artists are self-taught Black Americans. Each of them had to work ten times harder to survive than I could ever understand, and they were still inspired to make art. Most of them painted every day. They did not make art for money, or if there was money, it was not much. Mose T sold his paintings for $25. For me, this is the purest art in the world, and I am grateful to share it and to live with it every day.”
Clementine Hunter’s signature
Ron Silver’s signature
Clementine Hunter (1886-1988)
Cane River, Louisiana. At the age of 15, Hunter moved to the Melrose Plantation where she and her father picked cotton and pecans. In her 30s, Hunter became a cook and housekeeper at a plantation which shortly thereafter was transformed into an artists’ colony by Cammie Henry, Melrose’s owner. While Hunter had always been artistically inclined (quilts and tapestries were her previous creative outlets), her career as a painter more or less began with materials left behind by artists at Melrose. She started to sell her work in the 1940s and quickly came to national attention.
Hunter was the first African American to have her own show at the present-day New Orleans Museum of Art. Hunter’s work can be seen at the American Folk Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Louisiana State Museum, among other institutions. Those curious about Hunter’s life can learn more from her biography, Clementine Hunter: Cane River Artist by Tom Whitehead, and Art Shriver’s documentary Clementine Hunter’s World.
M.C. “5 Cent” Jones (1917-2003)
Gillam, Louisiana. Not much information about M.C. “5 Cent” Jones is publicly available—except that he was about five feet tall and worked as a field laborer for most of his life. What is known, and celebrated, about Jones is his large body of artwork. M.C. Jones painted a wide range of subjects—from intimate portraits, to animals, to Biblical scenes. Jones’ art is displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Art and the Louisiana State Museum.
Jimmie Lee Sudduth (1910-2007)
Fayette, Alabama. Jimmie Lee Sudduth painted for most of the 97 years of his life. Since he was a child, Sudduth experimented with creating his own pigments out of found materials. At the age of 58 in 1968, Sudduth’s first exhibition was put on at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa. Eventually his work was shown in the Smithsonian National Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art and the Birmingham Museum of art.
Mose Tolliver (1920-2006)
Montgomery, Alabama. Always a dabbler in art, Tolliver was unexpectedly able to devote his life to painting after his legs were crushed in a workplace accident. For the next several decades, Tolliver created inventive landscapes and portraits (with even more inventive titles). Tolliver’s pieces have been shown in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of Art.
Willie White (1910-2001)
Natchez, Mississippi. Willie White moved to New Orleans when he was a teenager where he became interested in painting. Over many years, he developed his signature style using felt-tip markers to create dense, fantastical scenes of dinosaurs, watermelons, skyscrapers and planets.
Purvis Young (1942-2010)
Miami, Florida. Young taught himself to draw and paint as a teenager in prison. His first major work was a mural on Goodbread Alley in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami. The mural attracted patrons and collectors, sustaining Young as a working artist. Young’s pieces can be seen in the Smithsonian, the Whitney, LACMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to name a few.
All paintings shown on this page are property of Ron Silver and Bubby’s, and are not for sale.