Events

Join Dr. Brian McConnell as he explores the story of Florida's Highwaymen, a group of 26 African-American artists that exhibited resourcefulness and creativity, forging a unique style of painting that offered them economic independence amidst the Jim Crow era. Starting in the 1950s and inspired by A.E. "Bean" Backus and Alfred Hair, these self-taught artists depicted Florida's landscapes in a vibrant manner, using a "fast painting" technique. Scenes of serene wilderness—beaches, marshes, sunny days, and storms -- were crafted from memory and experience into landscape abstractions that nevertheless created a very real image of an emerging Florida, America's last frontier. Using inexpensive materials, they stacked paintings in cars for efficient sales, showcasing ingenuity and adapting to expanding automobile access to the state in a manner very different from turn-of-the-century art colonies. Florida's Highwaymen turned to art as a means of livelihood, leaving a lasting legacy of artistic style and entrepreneurial spirit that remains active today.