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