About the Artist
Jimmy Lee Sudduth lived in Fayette, Alabama where he worked for many years mostly as a farm hand. He painted on plywood board and used natural materials like mud and motor oil in his works, which include people, animals and buildings as their subjects. He was a regular featured artist at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts. His work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, High Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art (Corcoran Gallery Collection), Birmingham Museum of Art and New Orleans Museum of Art.
More Information:
Jimmy was born in Caines Ridge, Alabama on March 10, 1910. He died in Fayette, Alabama on September 2, 2007.
He was an artist-in-residence at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Where Else Can You Find His Work?
American Folk Art Museum
Smithsonian Institution
High Museum of Art
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Birmingham Museum of Art
National Gallery of Art
Fayette Art Museum
Rockford Art Museum
Kentucky Folk Art Center
Owensboro Museum of Fine Art
New Orleans Museum of Fine Art
Louisiana State Museum
University of Mississippi Museum
Fenimore Art Museum
Milwaukee Art Museum
Saint James Place Folk Art Museum, Robersonville, NC
Publications and Press:
The Life and Art of Jimmy Lee Sudduth, (Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 2005), by Susan Mitchell Crawley.
Exhibitions:
Ashe: Improvisation and Recycling in African-American Visionary Art, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, February 2-March 29, 1993, Curator: Tom Patterson, catalog
Black History and Artistry: Work by Self-Taught Painters and Sculptors from the Blanchard-Hill Collection, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, February 5-March 4, 1993, Curator: Sandra Craskin, catalog
Passionate Visions of the American South: Self-Taught Artists, 1940 to the Present, New Orleans Museum of Art, October 23, 1993-January 30, 1994, Curator: Alice Rae Yelen, catalog
Not by Luck: Outsider Art by Southern Folks, Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, NJ, December 5, 1993-January 9, 1994, Guest Curator: Lynne Ingram
Folk Art from the Collection of Sally M. Griffiths, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, January 14-April 10, 1994, Curator: Andree M. Hymel, catalog
Fundamental Soul: The Hager Gift of Self-Taught African American Art, Rockford Art Museum, January 26-March 10, 1996, Curator: Scott Snyder, catalog
Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen, Birmingham Museum of Art, February 4-April 7, 1996, catalog
Wrestling with History: A Celebration of African American Self-Taught Artists from the Collection of Ronald and June Shelp, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College,, March 27-April 19, 1996, catalog
Wind in My Hair, American Visionary Art Museum, October 12, 1996-April 21, 1997, Guest Curator: Susanne Theis
Outsider Art: An Exploration of Chicago Collections, Chicago Cultural Center, December 9, 1996-February 23, 1997, Curator: Kenneth C. Burkhart, catalog
Flying Free: Twentieth Century Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, May 18-October 26, 1997, Curator: Barbara Luck. catalog
Twentieth-Century Folk Art from the Collection of Flo and Jules Laffal, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Connecticut College, September 26, 1997-January 4, 1998
Noah’s Ark: Animals by Southern Self-Taught Artists, Art Museum of the University of Memphis, August 1-September 19, 1998, Curator: Carol Crown
Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, 2002, catalog
The Life and Art of Jimmy Lee Sudduth, High Museum of Art, 2005, Curator: Susan Mitchell Crawley
Self-Taught, Outsider and Visionary Art from the collection of Richard Gasperi, Ogden Museum of Southern Art,
October 4, 2014 – February 22, 2015
Video:
