Introduction
Jim Fitch
13238 US 98
Sebring, FL 33876
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS - A TRADITION IS BORN
Jim Fitch
13238 US 98
Sebring, FL 33876
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS - A TRADITION IS BORN
A paper presented by Jim Fitch to the Florida Anthropological Society at its 47th annual convention held at Sebring, FL., April 7,8,9, 1995
Francois Mathey, author of American Realism has insightfully noted that, "To have its own art, a country must first possess a spiritual, political and economic identity by which it can recognize itself."
Floridians, natural and naturalized, have only recently come to realize that they have inherited just such an identity and that their "own" art tradition is in its infancy. This paper is presented as a record of the beginning of that tradition, as I see it.
Borrowing again from Mathey, we can surely agree that "The new Americans (make that Floridians) evidently had more immediate concerns than that of leaving to posterity an artistic memento of the promised land they had reached." "Art, as we understand it, was for them indeed excess baggage, unless it was the art of the carpenter who built log cabins and fences, or the blacksmith who hammered into shape the scythe and the knife, or that of the hunter. The plowman and the wife who wove, stitched and mended clothes."
Like all pioneers. Florida's early settlers had to establish priorities - food and shelter ranked above culture. By the time these settlers had beaten off the alligators and the Seminole. built a cabin and put down some roots, a generation had passed. Later generations dealt with the distraction of the First World War, a land boom and the inconvenience of a depression. The prosperity that followed World War Two allowed the fourth and fifth generation of Floridian's to develop the resources, the time and the money. that precede a more serious involvement with the arts.
With their discretionary income and an inherited sense of belonging to a culture that was uniquely their own, it was only natural that they would seek out art that they could relate to. There was precious little of it to be had.
What was available was generally out of reach of even the middle class. Henry Flagler, in the latter part of the 19th century. had invited artists of some renown to Florida to add a dollop of culture to an otherwise cultureless frontier society. Painters like George Inness. Martin Johnson Heade and even Winslow Homer did paint in Florida, but they were only passing through. They came. They painted. They left.
It would take another fifty years for the causes that would become the beginning of Florida's home grown art tradition to be in place.
Out of that particular set of circumstances came a group of young. black artists that I've labeled the "Highwaymen." So called because their marketing and sales strategy consisted of traveling the highways and byways of central Florida peddling their paintings out of the back of their cars.
Although I've identified nearly twenty of these artists still living. They are, for the most part, unknown and have not received credit for their contribution to Florida's art tradition
In fact, it was these artists that were the beginning for what has come to be recognized as the Indian River School of Art. Perhaps the only school, or movement within the state that can rightly be called Florida's own.
The story of the Highwaymen begins with one man, white. now deceased. who has come to be known as the Dean of Florida landscape painters. A.E. "Bean" Backus of Fort Pierce. I use the admittedly arbitrary date of 1950 as a point of beginning for the evolution of Florida's art tradition because that was the year Bean married Patsy Hutchinson and his career began to blossom. Unfortunately Patsy died of complications following heart surgery in 1955. Bean's love from then on was painting. He devoted himself to his art. the daily consumption of a quantity of rum. good conversation, and friends.
Although Bean was a White southerner during a time when racial equality was not yet taken seriously, he was a friend to all. This characteristic, coupled with a natural Bohemian bent, made him the perfect mentor to a group of young Black men who had noted the apparent ease with which he made a living. Painting, for them, was perceived as being a way out of the fields and groves
Most of these young men were content to learn by osmosis, by observation. Beans studio became a place to congregate. One seemed more eager to learn than the others, his name was Alfred Hair. To my knowledge, Alfred was the only one of this group of black men to take formal lessons from Bean and even accompanied him to the Bahamas on occasion.
Apparently Alfred had an entrepreneurial spirit because he later organized some of the others who had hung around Bean's studio and began to "mass produce" Florida landscape paintings. These paintings were usually done on Upsom board with whatever materials were at hand, including house paint.
It seems that Alfred employed specialists. Some were tree painters, some painted only skies, others did water. Who signed the paintings was of little concern to anyone.
Unfortunately Alfred Hair was killed in a barroom brawl, reportedly an innocent bystander.
Lacking Alfred's organizational skills, most of the others went their own ways and began to paint and sell for themselves. As a result, two distinct groups emerged. Those who were content to continue to paint by formula and with little regard for aesthetics or technique and those who were determined to develop their talents and skills in a more traditional way.
My personal opinion is that the former works are superior as art because they represent a more original interpretation. They are uniquely representative of a distinct era, and like honest folk art are unpretentious, unaffected and free from artifice.
The paintings by the latter group reflect more of the influence of their mentor Backus, and some are quite sophisticated by academic standards.
Until very recently both groups retained the highway sales technique. Now however, the demand for regional art has brought the buying public to the artists thus eliminating the need for the sales trips that typified the Highwaymen.
Noteworthy painters that have continued on in the more primitive style are James Gibson. John Daniels, also known as "Hook., and Al Black. Al Black most typifies the Highwaymen. His work reflects an artistic honesty that is refreshing. He paints for money. Not willing to invest any more of his time, talent or materials in painting than is absolutely necessary. He has developed a style that is free of toil. He puts it down and lets it be.
At the other end of the spectrum, painting in the more traditional way are Livingston Roberts, known as "Castro", George Buckner. Harold Newton (now deceased) and Robert Bulter. He has single-handedly brought an awareness of fine art and the culture that attends it to much of Florida.
There are similarities between Robert and his peers among The Highwaymen. He’s African American, he paints Florida's subject matter and he sells paintings aggressively. It becomes obvious if one has an opportunity to look at his work, that he has been given both the talent and ability to interpret the soul of Florida environment. Robert’s place in the annals of Florida's art tradition is sure and secure.
As Floridians become more aware of their heritage, it is my desire that the Highwaymen and the art they created, be given at least in a historical context, the credit they deserve for their contribution to Florida’s young robust art tradition.
26 artists have now been identified as original Highwaymen and all have been inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
Jim Fitch, June 2018
Francois Mathey, author of American Realism has insightfully noted that, "To have its own art, a country must first possess a spiritual, political and economic identity by which it can recognize itself."
Floridians, natural and naturalized, have only recently come to realize that they have inherited just such an identity and that their "own" art tradition is in its infancy. This paper is presented as a record of the beginning of that tradition, as I see it.
Borrowing again from Mathey, we can surely agree that "The new Americans (make that Floridians) evidently had more immediate concerns than that of leaving to posterity an artistic memento of the promised land they had reached." "Art, as we understand it, was for them indeed excess baggage, unless it was the art of the carpenter who built log cabins and fences, or the blacksmith who hammered into shape the scythe and the knife, or that of the hunter. The plowman and the wife who wove, stitched and mended clothes."
Like all pioneers. Florida's early settlers had to establish priorities - food and shelter ranked above culture. By the time these settlers had beaten off the alligators and the Seminole. built a cabin and put down some roots, a generation had passed. Later generations dealt with the distraction of the First World War, a land boom and the inconvenience of a depression. The prosperity that followed World War Two allowed the fourth and fifth generation of Floridian's to develop the resources, the time and the money. that precede a more serious involvement with the arts.
With their discretionary income and an inherited sense of belonging to a culture that was uniquely their own, it was only natural that they would seek out art that they could relate to. There was precious little of it to be had.
What was available was generally out of reach of even the middle class. Henry Flagler, in the latter part of the 19th century. had invited artists of some renown to Florida to add a dollop of culture to an otherwise cultureless frontier society. Painters like George Inness. Martin Johnson Heade and even Winslow Homer did paint in Florida, but they were only passing through. They came. They painted. They left.
It would take another fifty years for the causes that would become the beginning of Florida's home grown art tradition to be in place.
Out of that particular set of circumstances came a group of young. black artists that I've labeled the "Highwaymen." So called because their marketing and sales strategy consisted of traveling the highways and byways of central Florida peddling their paintings out of the back of their cars.
Although I've identified nearly twenty of these artists still living. They are, for the most part, unknown and have not received credit for their contribution to Florida's art tradition
In fact, it was these artists that were the beginning for what has come to be recognized as the Indian River School of Art. Perhaps the only school, or movement within the state that can rightly be called Florida's own.
The story of the Highwaymen begins with one man, white. now deceased. who has come to be known as the Dean of Florida landscape painters. A.E. "Bean" Backus of Fort Pierce. I use the admittedly arbitrary date of 1950 as a point of beginning for the evolution of Florida's art tradition because that was the year Bean married Patsy Hutchinson and his career began to blossom. Unfortunately Patsy died of complications following heart surgery in 1955. Bean's love from then on was painting. He devoted himself to his art. the daily consumption of a quantity of rum. good conversation, and friends.
Although Bean was a White southerner during a time when racial equality was not yet taken seriously, he was a friend to all. This characteristic, coupled with a natural Bohemian bent, made him the perfect mentor to a group of young Black men who had noted the apparent ease with which he made a living. Painting, for them, was perceived as being a way out of the fields and groves
Most of these young men were content to learn by osmosis, by observation. Beans studio became a place to congregate. One seemed more eager to learn than the others, his name was Alfred Hair. To my knowledge, Alfred was the only one of this group of black men to take formal lessons from Bean and even accompanied him to the Bahamas on occasion.
Apparently Alfred had an entrepreneurial spirit because he later organized some of the others who had hung around Bean's studio and began to "mass produce" Florida landscape paintings. These paintings were usually done on Upsom board with whatever materials were at hand, including house paint.
It seems that Alfred employed specialists. Some were tree painters, some painted only skies, others did water. Who signed the paintings was of little concern to anyone.
Unfortunately Alfred Hair was killed in a barroom brawl, reportedly an innocent bystander.
Lacking Alfred's organizational skills, most of the others went their own ways and began to paint and sell for themselves. As a result, two distinct groups emerged. Those who were content to continue to paint by formula and with little regard for aesthetics or technique and those who were determined to develop their talents and skills in a more traditional way.
My personal opinion is that the former works are superior as art because they represent a more original interpretation. They are uniquely representative of a distinct era, and like honest folk art are unpretentious, unaffected and free from artifice.
The paintings by the latter group reflect more of the influence of their mentor Backus, and some are quite sophisticated by academic standards.
Until very recently both groups retained the highway sales technique. Now however, the demand for regional art has brought the buying public to the artists thus eliminating the need for the sales trips that typified the Highwaymen.
Noteworthy painters that have continued on in the more primitive style are James Gibson. John Daniels, also known as "Hook., and Al Black. Al Black most typifies the Highwaymen. His work reflects an artistic honesty that is refreshing. He paints for money. Not willing to invest any more of his time, talent or materials in painting than is absolutely necessary. He has developed a style that is free of toil. He puts it down and lets it be.
At the other end of the spectrum, painting in the more traditional way are Livingston Roberts, known as "Castro", George Buckner. Harold Newton (now deceased) and Robert Bulter. He has single-handedly brought an awareness of fine art and the culture that attends it to much of Florida.
There are similarities between Robert and his peers among The Highwaymen. He’s African American, he paints Florida's subject matter and he sells paintings aggressively. It becomes obvious if one has an opportunity to look at his work, that he has been given both the talent and ability to interpret the soul of Florida environment. Robert’s place in the annals of Florida's art tradition is sure and secure.
As Floridians become more aware of their heritage, it is my desire that the Highwaymen and the art they created, be given at least in a historical context, the credit they deserve for their contribution to Florida’s young robust art tradition.
26 artists have now been identified as original Highwaymen and all have been inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
Jim Fitch, June 2018
