(American/Alabama, 1910-2007)

Couple, signed "Jim Sudduth" recto, paint and mud on board, 48 x 24 in. 

Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist in the 1990s; By descent in the Gassenheimer family; Property from a Private Collector

Note: A remembrance from the consignor: I was a photographer for Reuters in Washington, DC when I met Pat Gallagher who was a videographer for cable TV. A mutual passion was folk art and together we embarked on a trip through the southeast to meet the prominent folk artists of the day. From this came a trove of black and white and color photographs, oral histories, video of artists at work, and a trailer for the documentary we’d started. Best of all we’re the friendships made and art purchased during this magical time.

Jimmy Lee kept a big bucket of mud-paint beside his chair. He went on walks to collect his art materials. He showed us how he collected and used the elements around him. Poke berries made purple. His studio was outside or on his front porch in the sunshine and he most often used his fingers and other natural objects like sticks and rocks as painting tools. We watched him thumbprint red heads on the figures in his lively painting of the Washington Monument. Jimmy was funny and talented, played a wide variety of music, sang, told jokes and was a great storyteller. He would play harmonica accompanied by his dog "Toto", who he taught to sing along. 

All of the artists we visited loved people, loved that people were interested in their art and what they had to say and actively lived lives of artistic expression every day.
 

general wear to wood and rough edges, likely as made, slight loss to paint