Hazel Singer: BlackPast.org Blog: The Florida Highwaymen

Alfred Hair (1941-1970)

By Robert Lewis b. 1941

Mary Ann Carroll b. 1940

Hazel Singer:

Saturday April 29, 2017

Artists need support from art infrastructure such as galleries, museums, agents to succeed beyond their studios. This infrastructure was in short supply for African American artists in the 1950's and 1960's. A group of artists in Florida realised that in order to get anywhere they would need to get beyond the middlemen and market their own work.

The artist Alfred Hair was the catalyst behind the nine artists who were the founding core of The Highwaymen. The group later expanded to twenty-six artists who are considered The Highwaymen or The Florida Highwaymen (there was only one woman in the group). After Hair was killed in 1970, the group slowed down substantially and their "brand" became less visible until their rediscovery in the 1990's by  Florida journalist Jeff Klinkenberg and Florida art historian Jim Fitch. The group was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004.

The lone woman in the group, Mary Ann Carroll, was a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama on May 8, 2011 at the The First Lady's Luncheon. Ms. Carroll presented First Lady Obama with a painting of a poinciana tree.

There have been two PBS documentaries on The Highwaymen, one produced in 2003, The Highwaymen: Florida's Outsider Artists; the second, The Highwaymen: Legends of the Road,in 2008. A new film, The Unknowns: Talent is Colorblind, is due to be released in 2017. In 2012, NPR did a series of features and interviews of several of the Highwaymen and those can be listened to here. Gary Monroe has written what is considered the definitive book on The Highwaymen, The Highwaymen: Florida's African American Landscape Painters.  The Highwaymen's works of art, of which there are over 200,00 pieces, are highly sought after and found in galleries and at auctions.

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Thanks, Bill, I appreciate it.   Warmly, -Hazel [Hazel Singer]