Artist

Sister Gertrude Morgan

born Lafayette, AL 1900-died New Orleans, LA 1980
Also known as
  • Gertrude Morgan
Born
Lafayette, Alabama, United States
Died
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Biography

Gertrude Morgan was raised as an active member of the Southern Baptist church. "My heavenly father called me in 1934 . . . . Go ye into yonder's world and sing with a loud voice you. . . are a chosen vessel to call men women Girls and boys." After moving to New Orleans in 1939, she began her missionary work as a singing street preacher and soon joined a sanctified fundamentalist church where the services emphasized singing, music, and dancing. With two other street missionaries in the early 1940s, Sister Morgan built and operated a small chapel and center for orphans, runaways, and other children who required food and attention.

In 1956, Morgan began wearing only white clothing, anticipating that she would be the bride of Christ. She also prepared an all-white room in her house as the prayer room. In 1966, Morgan claimed God instructed her to draw pictures of the world to come— the New Jerusalem. Her sermons on paper illustrate aspects of her life and visions, as well as her interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Her drawings, she believed, were composed by God, "Through his Blessed hands as he take my hand and write . . . I just do the Blessed work."

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

Works by this artist (1 item)

Maria Alquilar, Maquette for Bien Venida y Vaya Con Dios, 1985, ceramic, copper foil, wire, paint and plastic, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration, Art-in-Architecture Program, 1990.69A-B
Maquette for Bien Venida y Vaya Con Dios
Date1985
ceramic, copper foil, wire, paint and plastic
On view

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022March 26, 2023
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and

Related Books

Cover for the catalogue "We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection"
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and her son Douglas O. Robson, and will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum July 1, 2022 through March 26, 2023.

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Illustrated portrait of Sister Gertrude Morgan singing and playing the tambourine.
Women Artists03/07/2024
Celebrating the renowned artist with a comic about her life and work.