Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art

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James Hampton's Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly, ca. 1950-1964, mixed media, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of anonymous donors, 1970.353.1-.116

SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists. Represented in the museum’s collection are pieces that draw on tradition — such as quilts — as well as artworks that reveal a more personal vision. The museum has reimagined its permanent collection galleries for art by untrained artists, which now display several dozen recent acquisitions and an expanded presentation of the beloved Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly by James Hampton.

Description

Recently acquired works by Consuelo Gonzalez Amezcua, Emery Blagdon, David Butler, Ulysses Davis, Ralph Fasanella, Clementine Hunter, Dan Miller, Joe Minter, Eddy MummaJ.B. Murray, Achilles Rizzoli, Melvin Way, Charlie Willeto, Clarence and Grace Woolsey, Purvis Young, and Albert Zahn join visitor favorites by Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Martín Ramírez, and Jon Serl. A striking presence in the galleries is a display of more than sixty sculptures and paintings by Emery Blagdon that represents his constantly changing Healing Machine. It is the second-largest installation of his work on public view in the United States.

The new installation of the Throne includes Hampton’s personal journal, written primarily in an asemic, or unreadable script, and a chalkboard still showing some of Hampton’s sketched plans for the Throne. Both are on public view for the first time; the journal will be on display for a limited time.

Visiting Information

1st floor West
Ongoing
Open Daily, 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m
Free Admission

Videos

Credit

The museum’s Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. American Folk Art Fund provided support for this installation.

Online Gallery

Emery Blagdon, The Healing Machine, ca. 1955-1986, mixed media, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and gift of Dan Dryden, friend of Emery Blagdon, the Kohler Foundation, Inc., and John E. and Douglas O. Robson, from the Margaret Z. Robson Collection, VR.2014.49.GRP
The Healing Machine
Dateca. 1955-1986
mixed media
On view
Bill Traylor, Untitled (Yellow and Blue House with Figures and Dog), 1939, colored pencil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2016.14.5, © 1994, Bill Traylor Family Trust
Untitled (Yellow and Blue House with Figures and Dog)
Date1939
colored pencil on paperboard
Not on view
David Butler, Nativity, ca. 1968, paint on tin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2014.61.1
Nativity
Dateca. 1968
paint on tin
On view
Shields Landon ("S.L.") Jones, Guitarist, 1976, man: carved and painted wood
guitar: carved wood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.382A-B
Guitarist
Date1976
man: carved and painted wood guitar: carved wood
On view
Albert Zahn, Untitled (Seated Hessian Soldier), ca. 1924 - 1950, painted wood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orren and Marilyn Bradley and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2015.58.34
Untitled (Seated Hessian Soldier)
Dateca. 1924 - 1950
painted wood
On view
Clarence Woolsey, Grace Woolsey, Untitled (Caparena figure), ca. 1961 - 1972, bottle caps, wood, and wire, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orren and Marilyn Bradley and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2015.58.27
Untitled (Caparena figure)
Dateca. 1961 - 1972
bottle caps, wood, and wire
On view
Unidentified (American), Untitled (String Quilt with Diamond Pattern), 1950s, cotton, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Corrine Riley and museum purchase through the Barbara Coffey Quilt Endowment and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2016.5.37
Untitled (String Quilt with Diamond Pattern)
Artist
Unidentified (American)
Date1950s
cotton
Not on view
Unidentified (American), Untitled (Octagons and Bars), 1930s - 1940s, wool, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Corrine Riley and museum purchase through the Barbara Coffey Quilt Endowment and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2016.5.25
Untitled (Octagons and Bars)
Artist
Unidentified (American)
Date1930s - 1940s
wool
Not on view

Artists

Consuelo González Amézcua
born Piedras Negras, Mexico 1903-died Del Rio, TX 1975

Consuelo "Chelo" González Amézcua was a self-taught artist born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, in 1903. She immigrated to the United States in 1913.

Emery Blagdon
born Callaway, NE 1907-died Callaway, NE 1986
Ulysses Davis
born Fitzgerald, GA 1913-died Savannah, GA 1990

Davis developed his wood-carving skills on his own over a period of more than fifty years, beginning during his childhood in Fitzgerald, Georgia.

Ralph Fasanella
born New York City 1914-died Yonkers, NY 1997

Ralph Fasanella celebrated the common man and tackled complex issues of postwar America in colorful, socially-minded paintings. Fasanella was born in the Bronx and grew up in the working-class neighborhoods of New York.

Lonnie Holley
born Birmingham, AL 1950
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Clementine Hunter
born near Cloutierville, LA 1886/7-died near Natchitoches, LA 1988
On a Louisiana plantation built on the labor of enslaved workers and reinvented, in the twentieth century, as an artists’ and writers’ retreat, Clementine Hunter painted everyday scenes she felt historians overlooked.
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Dan Miller
born Castro Valley, CA 1961

Miller was born in California’s Castro Valley in 1961 and joined Creative Growth, the same art studio where Judith Scott worked, in 1992. There he began making large, abstracted graphic works that function as communiqués in a self-shaped language.

Joe Minter
born Birmingham, AL 1943
Eddy Mumma
born Milton, OH 1908-died Gainesville, FL 1986
J. B. Murray
born Sandersville, GA 1908-died Sandersville, GA 1988
Martín Ramírez
born Jalisco, Mexico 1895-died Auburn, CA 1963

Ramírez left Mexico as a young man to seek employment in the United States.

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Achilles G. Rizzoli
born Point Reyes, CA 1896-died San Francisco, CA 1981
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Jon Serl
born Olean, NY 1894-died Lake Elsinore, CA 1993

According to Jon Serl, this painting began one afternoon with the drawing of a neighborhood boy who interrupted Serl's painting.

Melvin Way
born Ruffin, SC 1954-died SC 2024
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Charlie Willeto
born Nageezi, Navajo Reservation (Dineteh), NM 1906-died Nageezi, Navajo Reservation (Dineteh), NM 1964

A traditional Navajo sheepherder, Charlie Willeto began carving in the early 1960s, only a few years before his death.

Clarence Woolsey
born Hugoton, KS 1909-died Waterloo, IA 1987
Albert Zahn
born Natelfitz, Germany 1864-died Baileys Harbor, WI 1953