Muskegon, Museum of Art

Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Environments Coast to Coast

September 16 through November 7, 2010

Homer Green (1910-2002)

Man with Wings 1
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
1990
Sculpture (wood and paint)
26 x 56 x 8"

Gregory Warmack (born 1948)
Guitar Pharaoh
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
2002
Sculpture (found object)
40” x 15" x 6”

Minnie (born 1934) and Greg Adkins (son)
Little Tiger
Isonville, Kentucky
2006
Sculpture (wood and paint)
15 x 7”

Ronald E. (born 1932) and Jessie F. Cooper (born 1931)
Minnow Bucket
Flemingsburg, Kentucky
2002
Sculpture (found object)
24 x 25 ½ x 18 ½”

Linvel (1929-2004) and Lillian Barker (1930-1997)
Rabbit
Isonville, Kentucky
1992
Sculpture (wood)
2 ½ x 16 x 9"

Mamie Deschillie (born 1920)
Blue Pick Up Truck (wall hanging)
Fruitland, New Mexico
Date unknown
Painting (on cardboard cut-out)
24 x 11”

Reverend Howard Finster (1916-2001)
Gabriel Trumpeting Angel (wall hanging)
Summerville, Georgia
February 22, 1990
Painting on wood (oil or water-based)
50 x 12"

Matt Sesow (born 1966)    
El Gallo (wall hanging)
Washington, DC
2003
Oil pastel on paper
18 x 24"

Stanley Szwarc (born 1929)
Large jewelry box
Berwyn, Illinois
2003
Decorative metal sculpture
6 x 4 ¾ x 10"

Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig
Walker Gallery A

Untrained artists are inspired to create for many reasons: retirement, physical or psychological disability, inspiration through a vision, personal loss, or pure chance. Detour Art highlights more than 90 objects in a variety of mediums made by untrained artists, visionaries, and folk creators found along the back roads of America. The exhibition honors a creative spirit that is at once traditional and whimsical, spiritual and irreverent, earthy and sublime. This is an informative introduction to contemporary American folk art that echoes collector Kelly Ludwig’s fascination with visual expression off the beaten path. 

Ludwig, inspired by her work with the PBS show “Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations,” has collected outsider, self-taught, and contemporary folk art and documented visionary environments from across the country. The exhibition features objects that evoke joy, wonder, and inspiration by some of the best known artists who work outside the mainstream, including Thornton Dial, Mose Tolliver, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Howard Finster, Minnie Adkins, and Mary T. Smith. Among the folk art environments documented are S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden and Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain.

Detour Art has been organized from the collection of Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City, Missouri. National tour development is managed by Smith Kramer Fine Arts Services, Kansas City, Missouri.

OPENING RECEPTION & LECTURE

Thursday, September 16
(Please note early event times.)
5:00 pm Opening Reception
6:00 pm Lecture by Kelly Ludwig

Program support provided in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs