Clementine Hunter: American Folk Artist Hardcover - 1988

From the rear cover

"I like Clementine's paintings. Too long has contemporary American art been floundering around blindly. There is something so original, so colorful and convincing in them that I am convinced they may prove to be the seeing-eye that may lead many a confused artist with more formal training back on the right road to a self-expression that others . . . can comprehend." --Alexander Woollcott

". . . her painting impressed me. It is really not at all primitive. It is very civilized--as Gertrude Stein said of the African wood carvings that influenced Matisse and particularly Picasso, almost fifty years ago." --Alice B. Toklas

"A beautiful testament to an American original." --Independent Publisher

Exuberant colors, bold strokes, and everyday images typify Clementine Hunter's folk art. Born in 1887 on a plantation in Louisiana, Hunter spent most of her life working in cotton fields at Melrose Plantation. It wasn't until she was in her fifties that she began painting, and it was several more years before her talent was recognized. Focusing her work on what she experienced, her paintings exemplify the simplicity of life in rural Louisiana.

Instrumental in the promotion of Hunter's paintings, Fran�ois Mignon, her close friend and curator/librarian of Melrose, kept detailed notes of his interactions with the artist. Excerpts of his letters to James Register, an art collector and dealer who specialized in Hunter's works, chronicle her growth and development as a major contemporary artist.

Nearly one hundred images of her art are presented in this extensive biography, an assemblage of the many public and private collections of Hunter's work. Several paintings are accompanied by Hunter's own commentary on a variety of subjects, including marriage, baptism, money, and death.

From the jacket flap

"I like Clementine's paintings. Too long has contemporary American art been floundering around blindly. There is something so original, so colorful and convincing in them that I am convinced they may prove to be the seeing-eye that may lead many a confused artist with more formal training back on the right road to a self-expression that others . . . can comprehend." --Alexander Woollcott

". . . her painting impressed me. It is really not at all primitive. It is very civilized--as Gertrude Stein said of the African wood carvings that influenced Matisse and particularly Picasso, almost fifty years ago." --Alice B. Toklas

"A beautiful testament to an American original." --Independent Publisher

Exuberant colors, bold strokes, and everyday images typify Clementine Hunter's folk art. Born in 1887 on a plantation in Louisiana, Hunter spent most of her life working in cotton fields at Melrose Plantation. It wasn't until she was in her fifties that she began painting, and it was several more years before her talent was recognized. Focusing her work on what she experienced, her paintings exemplify the simplicity of life in rural Louisiana.

Instrumental in the promotion of Hunter's paintings, Fran�ois Mignon, her close friend and curator/librarian of Melrose, kept detailed notes of his interactions with the artist. Excerpts of his letters to James Register, an art collector and dealer who specialized in Hunter's works, chronicle her growth and development as a major contemporary artist.

Nearly one hundred images of her art are presented in this extensive biography, an assemblage of the many public and private collections of Hunter's work. Several paintings are accompanied by Hunter's own commentary on a variety of subjects, including marriage, baptism, money, and death.

Media reviews

Citations

• Library Journal, 03/01/1989, Page 0