the Journey of Highwaymen

Part folk artists, part entrepreneurs, the Highwaymen produced - and sold - some 50,000 paintings of the Florida coast (less conservative estimates put that number closer to 200,000). This title traces the Highwaymen through the streets of the Fort Pierce town, which was at once their inspiration and their storefront. Part folk artists, part entrepreneurs, the Highwaymen produced - and sold - some 50,000 paintings of the Florida coast (less conservative estimates put that number closer to 200,000) over the course of two feverish decades. Mentored by A. E. 'Bean' Backus, a local white artist, Harold Newton and Alfred Hair recruited their African-American friends, neighbours and family members into a movement that comprised nearly two dozen painters at its peak in 1970, all working in Fort Pierce, peddling their artwork along the roadside.A native of Fort Pierce, author Catherine Enns traces the Highwaymen through the streets of the town, which was at once their inspiration and their storefront. She reveals the vibrant, spontaneous and incredibly commercial style of these painters, who made a livelihood of their landscapes. Upon the rediscovery of the group in the mid-1990s, nearly every piece was in a private collection (regrettably, often the owner's attic) and the artists had few early paintings to show. Renewed interest in the movement has driven up prices in recent years and works of art once priced for Florida housewives are now valued well into the thousands.

Catherine M. Enns (Auteur) - Verschenen op 25/06/2009 bij Abrams