Tampa Scores, Contemporary Folk Art Opens

From September 3 to November 26, the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida hosts Contemporary Folk Art, which features works made by self-taught artists.

Ohio State University Stadium by William Hawkins spotlights the start of a new football season—and the exhibition opening.

William Hawkins was raised on a farm in Kentucky and learned to draw by copying illustrations from horse-auction announcements and calendar pictures. When he was twenty-one, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he painted the cityscapes and fantastic animals for which he is best known.

This image of the stadium at Ohio State University is based on an aerial photograph that Hawkins found in a history of the city of Columbus. It is typical of his use of photographs and illustrations for inspiration.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: William Hawkins, 1895–1990, Ohio State University Stadium, 1984, enamel housepaint on paneling, 46 1/2 x 48 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.