Florida Highwaymen Paintings and Prison Murals: Al Black and the Florida Highwaymen
Florida Highwaymen Paintings and Prison Murals: Al Black and the Florida Highwaymen
In the early 1950’s through the 1980’s a group of twenty-six African-American artists known as the "Florida Highwaymen" used vivid and bright colors to display the beautiful untouched Florida landscape. The Florida Highwaymen painted wind-bent palm trees, serene sunsets, churning oceans and bright red Poinciana trees. They painted from their garages and back yards on inexpensive Upson board and then on the weekends they would travel and sell their Highwaymen paintings to hotels, offices, businesses and individuals who appreciated the artwork for around $25 a piece.
Al Black spent the 1960s and 1970s selling paintings by The Highwaymen. Eventually, he started making his own canvases. Life was good. By the 1980s, however, the demand for Highwaymen creations was slowing, and by the late 1990s, Al Black found himself in jail.
While housed at the Central Florida Reception Center near Orlando, Black’s past as a Highwayman artist was discovered by the Warden, and Black was allowed the opportunity to paint murals throughout the CFRC.
Author Gary Monroe, best known for his books on the Highwaymen, has photographed Black’s murals, and is in the process of completing a book on the same subject. As Monroe says, Al Black’s prison murals allow a glimpse into another world, where a painting can offer "an artful prescription to alleviate what ails many desperate lives."
Thursday, Oct 30, 2008 through Sunday, Jan 4, 2009 at The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens 829 Riverside Avenue Jacksonville, Florida 904.356.6857
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is located at 829 Riverside Avenue in Jacksonville, Florida, just minutes from I-95. The Museum and its award-winning education center, Art Connections occupy adjacent buildings overlooking the three acres of The Cummer Gardens. The entire museum campus is situated on the banks of the St. Johns River.
