Now, her paintings are prized and skyrocketing in price, and she is acclaimed as an original spirit and a communicator of her culture and times to ours.In rural central Louisiana on the banks of the Cane River sits Melrose Plantation. With roots that reach well beyond the beginnings of the European colonization of the region, Melrose has supported Native American tribes, early white and Creole farming communities, endured the violence of the Civil War, and later, acted as an artist's retreat. Early in its development by Westerners, an enigmatic structure was erected on the property, called the African House, that now stands as an unexpected symbol of cultural confluence and the validation of individual significance. Today, the upper floor of the building houses The African House Murals, the largest and most celebrated artworks of Clementine Hunter, who lived for the majority of her life on Melrose Plantation, and whose legacy of humble self-determination stands in direct relationship to that of the founders of the place we now call Melrose. This article will explore the work of Clementine Hunter by accounting for her life story, the history of her home, and assess the unique and definitive qualities of her painting.Ĭlementine Hunter is one of the South’s most celebrated folk artists, an untrained painter who began her career only after she’d reached her fifties. Unable to read or write, she shared her memories of life working in rural Louisiana by producing vibrant pictures. When President Jimmy Carter invited her to the White House, she turned him down because she didn’t like to travel outside of Louisiana. I paint the history of my people.”ĭuring Hunter’s life, she remained poor and unaffected by her fame. “I’m glad the young people of today can look at my paintings,” she said, “and see how easy and uncomplicated things were when we lived off the land. Illiterate, she wanted to tell her memories and stories through her pictures for the generations to come. Hunter’s work disregards proportion and perspective to present simple, expressive scenes of plantation life - cotton picking, weddings, funerals. Hunter carried on her simple life and artwork until the age of 101. In the 70s, the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited her paintings. The New Orleans Museum of Art showed her work in the first solo exhibition given a Black artist - though Hunter couldn’t attend her own show until after hours. The artists at the plantation soon recognised her and began giving her supplies, promoting her work and selling it for a few cents or a dollar. Hunter painted thousands of pieces during her lifetime, with whatever materials were to hand. After her day’s work, she would quilt or paint, capturing the scenes of daily life around her. Legend has it that one day she found a few discarded tubes of paint and a window shade, and painted a baptism scene. Hunter transferred from the fields to work as a cook and housekeeper. She was living at Melrose Plantation, whose mistress had transformed the property into a haven for artists. Hunter already had grandchildren when she discovered her passion for art. After Dupree’s death, she met and married Emmanuel Hunter, who taught her English and with whom she had five more children. She married Charlie Dupree and had two children. After only a few days of school, she left, preferring her work in the fields. Clementine Hunter was born into a Creole family of former slaves, on a plantation in Louisiana.
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