PERMANENT COLLECTION
The Gadsden Arts Center has several outstanding works of art on permanent loan or as part of the permanent collection. The Center is in the process of expanding the collection through the generous donations of local art colletors.
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 Jimmy Lee Sudduth
untitled, n.d.
earth pigments on wood, 12.5” x 42.5”
Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.7
This is a painting of an African-American woman in an apron and heels, which was a common subject for Jimmy Lee Sudduth. Sudduth was renowned for his inventive and joyful mud paintings on wood, and his subject matter ranged from southern mansions and cotton picking to Manhattan skylines; however, he mainly depicted the people and places of his hometown, Fayette, Alabama. The Gadsden Arts Center exhibited this work in the exhibition, Vernacular Art from the Hill Collection, August 28–October 25, 2009.
Jimmy Lee Sudduth was born on March 10,1910, and grew up in the home of his stepfather and Native American mother, who practiced herbal medicine and taught Sudduth about plants and their properties. Sudduth worked as a gardener for many years and said that he could obtain 36 different colors from dirt and rocks. He remembers creating his first painting when he was three or four years old; his first drawings in charcoal on wood would wash away until he learned to add honey or syrup to make them last. Sudduth used a combination of substances including dirt, clay, berry juices, leaves, sugar, coffee grounds and ashes for his paintings. He used his fingers to apply his “paint” because “they never wore out”.
In 1968, Sudduth exhibited his work for the first time at Stillman College, in Tuscaloosa, the first in a long line of different venues to exhibit his work. Additional notable appearances included an invitation to exhibit and play his harmonica at the Smithsonian’s Bicentennial Festival of American Folk Art in 1976, and 1980 appearances on the Today Show and 60 Minutes. Sudduth died on September 2, 2007, at the age of 97 at the Fayette Medical Center in his hometown.
Jimmy Lee Sudduth
untitled, n.d.
earth pigments, paint on wood, 24.75” x 12.5”
Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.8
Around the early 1990s, Jimmy Lee Sudduth could no longer physically collect the natural materials he traditionally used for pigments, and had to turn to using acrylic paints and sponges. This work by Jimmy Lee Sudduth depicts a waddling bird on wood in pencil and earth pigments and possibly acrylic paint. The bird is speckled with green, blue and orange dots and is surrounded by a brown and white border. Birds were common subjects for Sudduth as these were creatures he often encountered around his home.
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Works on Loan:
Florida Shirt
Leo McMillan
mixed media
On loan from the artist
This large-scale mixed media sculpture represents all things associated with the state of Florida, included dolphins, oranges, flamingos, NASA, snakes, alligators, and more while posing as a “Florida Shirt”. Artist Leo McMillan teaches 3D Design and Art Tools and Techniques at Florida State University and has maintained a professional art studio for thirty years. He is a past recipient of an Individual Artists Fellowship from the State of Florida and was one of three artists chosen statewide to design a monumental sculpture for the front of the State Capitol. Currently, McMillan resides in Quincy, and sits on the Gadsden Arts Center Exhibition Committee.
 Ichiboku Sculptures:
Natabori, Mongaku, Yama Uba
Mark Lindquist
wood
On loan from the artist
Mark Lindquist has been an innovator and leader in the field of woodturning/sculpture since the late 1960s. Lindquist's thirty-plus years of contributions to contemporary art have altered the direction of woodturning and sculpture worldwide. Through exhibiting, writing and teaching, Lindquist was instrumental in bringing about the acceptance of the craft of woodturning as a serious art form, and inspired and nurtured the followers of this fledgling movement. Mark Lindquist's sculpture has evolved out of his art historical studies and his mastery of, and experimentation with, the craft of woodturning. Beginning in the late 1960s, he developed many of the techniques and aesthetic concepts which underlie the current studio woodturning movement, including the use of flawed materials (especially spalted wood), the application of modern abrasive technology, and the integration of Japanese ceramic sensibilities.
These sculptures are from one of Lindquist’s several series of sculpted wood. Ichiboku, literally "one tree," is a type of Japanese sculpture made from a single block of wood. This technique flourished in the ninth century when a spirit of religious revivalism prevailed, and the spirit of the tree was invoked to lend strength to the image carved from it.
Lindquist’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world, and have been acquired by prestigious museums such as the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the White House Collection of American Craft, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, and numerous other public and private collections.
In September of 2010, the Gadsden Arts Center will host and exhibition that explores the 40-year evolution of Lindquist’s work, from wood vessels and furniture to large-scale totems to abstract photography.
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Gadsden Arts, Inc.