Jimmy Lee Sudduth (1910-2007)

Jimmy Lee Sudduth lived all his life in rural Alabama. Born on a farm near Fayette, he said he started painting as a child, using whatever materials were to hand. As an adult he continued to paint, still using found materials and creating his own pigments with dirt, clay and sugar. This pigment mixture he called “sweet mud” and he used his fingers to create his imagery. He painted what was around him, including farm scenes, wildlife, log cabins and locals. His first exhibition was in 1968 at Stillman College, Tuscaloosa. A blues musician as well as a painter, in 1976 he was invited to play his music and display his art at the Smithsonian Bicentennial Festival of American Folk Life. With regular appearances at art and music festivals, Sudduth appeared on television and was celebrated as an African American folk artist. In the 1990s dealers he worked with encouraged him to make more colorful works with acrylic paints and Sudduth began to use sponges to apply colors to flat boards. His earlier work is particularly prized for its use of found materials and idiosyncratic finger technique. His art is found in national and state art collections and occasionally appears at folk art auctions.

Jimmy Lee Sudduth (1910-2007)

Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC

Self Portrait with Banjo, 1986

Mud, paint and sugar on board

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Snakes, 1986

House paint, earth and sugar on board

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

Untitled (log cabin), ca. 1975

House paint and earth pigments on plywood

Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, Alabama

Untitled (Chicken) ca. 1995

Clay and syrup on Plywood

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Betty Woodman (American,1930-2018)

Betty Woodman (American, May 14, 1930 – January 2, 2018) was a talented ceramic artist who used her technical skills and eye for color to create unique objects and environments. Her work was described for her 2006 solo retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum, as “For Woodman, the vase can be a vessel, a metaphor, or an art-historical reference. Her work alludes to and infuses numerous sources, including Minoan and Egyptian art, Greek and Etruscan sculpture, Tang Dynasty works, majolica and Sèvres porcelain, Italian Baroque architecture, and the paintings of Picasso and Matisse.” (Metropolitan Museum Press release 2006).

As can be seen with the objects shown below, her objects often appear deceptively simple, but were in reality technically complex marriages of ceramic construction and glaze techniques.  One of her unique shapes is what she called a Pillow Pitcher, comprised of two cylinders, attached at the middle and pinched together at the ends.

Pillow Pitcher, 1983, glazed earthenware, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Ming Sisters, 2003, Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer and paint. Metropolitan Museum.

Water Tray, 1978, white earthenware, Metropolitan Museum.