The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art will celebrate the rich tradition of Appalachian folk art with its newest exhibition, Art From the Heart: The Hood Collection. The show features the personal collection of the late Mary Bryan Hood, founding director of the museum, along with works from the museum’s permanent collection.
A preview reception will be held May 24 from 6 to 8 p.m., with the exhibition continuing through July 6.
Executive Director Jason Hayden said the pieces highlight the unique vision of self-taught artists whose work exists outside the boundaries of traditional academic art.
“This exhibition explores the diversity and creativity expressed by artists working outside the academic tradition,” Hayden said. “The collection documents the innovative styles, techniques, and nontraditional media used by unschooled artists — many of whom have achieved national recognition and a lasting place in American art history.”
The exhibit includes paintings, sculptures in wood, metal, and fiber, dioramas, and hand-crafted furniture. Artists from across the Southeast are featured, including Howard Finster, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, and S.L. Jones. Celebrated Kentucky folk artists include Edgar Tolson, Minnie and Garland Adkins, Ronald and Jessie Cooper, Charley and Noah Kinney, Tim Lewis, and Denzil Goodpaster.
Hayden said the museum’s collection was assembled over three decades through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Folk Art Society of America, and gifts from major private collectors, such as Ramona Lampell of the famed O, Appalachia Collection, the late Dr. William G. Ward and Nancy Ward, and the late Dr. and Mrs. John Miller.
Among the highlights of the exhibition are works by Mary Anderson Cayce — Mary Bryan Hood’s mother — who was a prolific self-taught artist from Central City, Kentucky.
“She was constantly making things,” Hayden said. “She made her own clothes, hand-sculpted works from drywall mud, and passed on a deep love of the visual arts to her daughter. You can see where Mary Bryan got her penchant for art.”
One portrait in the exhibition, created by renowned Kentucky fiber artist Penny Sisto, depicts Cayce. Sisto, considered one of the state’s most important living fiber artists, has work in collections around the country.
Hayden noted that the term “folk art” falls under the broader category of “naïve art,” referring to artists with little or no formal training.
“Folk art tends to be rural,” he said. “It often comes from people who created with whatever materials were available, driven by necessity or personal expression, not by market trends.”
He said many of the museum’s Appalachian pieces were acquired in the 1980s, when an acquisition committee traveled into remote areas of the Appalachian Mountains to meet with artists, many of whom rarely left their communities.
“They created because they had to,” Hayden said. “That’s the magic of Appalachian folk art.”
Admission to Art From the Heart is free. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Guided tours may be arranged by contacting Rebecca Stoen, Director of Education, at [email protected] or 270-685-3181. Tours cost $50 for up to 25 participants, with a $2 fee for each additional person.
