Untitled (Nellie and Judith’s Houses)
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Object Details
Artist/Maker
Nellie Mae Rowe, American, 1900–1982
Date
1978–1982
Medium
Crayon, marker, and pencil on paper
Dimensions
18 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches
Credit
Gift of Judith Alexander
Accession #
2003.209
Image Copyright
© Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Description
These conjoined houses signify how the destinies of Rowe and her gallerist Judith Alexander were mutually dependent. Alexander had been showing contemporary art for decades, but her close relationship with Rowe led her to become one of the South’s only gallerists dedicated to self-taught artists. The way these houses appear stitched together seemed to inspire the poetic words of Rowe’s great-grandniece Cheryl Mashack at Alexander’s 2005 funeral: “Some of our paths would have never crossed, but there was a plan and a purpose orchestrated from above and thus began the construction of a beautifully made quilt.”