06/12/2026
📣 New exhibition – "Clementine Hunter: As I Saw It"
Hunter was a prolific self-taught artist whose vibrant paintings depict the rhythms of daily Black life on Melrose Plantation in Louisiana.
Born in the 1880s in the Jim Crow South, Hunter had little access to formal education and spent most of her life working as a plantation laborer. She began making art in her 50s, using paint left by visiting artists at the plantation. She produced over 5,000 paintings, many at night by the light of a kerosene lamp, until her death in 1988 at the age of 101.
"Clementine Hunter: As I Saw It" (on view through June 4, 2028) is generously lent by American Folk Art Museum, New York as part of Art Bridges' Partner Loan Network.
1 - Clementine Hunter (1886 or 1887–1988), "Cotton Pickin', Natchitoches, Louisiana," 1948, oil on artist board, 24 1/2 x 28 x 1 1/2 in. American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Gleaves Rhodes, 2001.27.1. Copyright Cane River Art Corporation, with special thanks to Thomas Whitehead. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
2 - Clementine Hunter (1886 or 1887–1988), "Saturday Night," Natchitoches, Louisiana, 1968, acrylic on board, 24 x 16 in. American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Mary Bass Newlin, 1989.9.1. Copyright Cane River Art Corporation, with special thanks to Thomas Whitehead. Photo by John Parnell.
3 - Clementine Hunter (1886 or 1887–1988), "Funeral, Natchitoches, Louisiana," 1950, oil on artist board, 24 1/2 x 28 x 1/2 in. American Folk Art Museum, New York, Gift of Gleaves Rhodes, 2001.27.2. Copyright Cane River Art Corporation, with special thanks to Thomas Whitehead. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
