Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe

 

Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe

 

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.”