MADISON, Ga. — Susan Crawley was the first dedicated curator of a separate folk art department in any major, general art museum. After leaving Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, she is now curating folk art exhibits for a number of museums and galleries.

Madison Ga.’s Cultural Center is the first museum to benefit from Crawley’s talent and experience. This exhibit, Georgia and Beyond, Southern Self-Taught Art, Past and Present, presents 67 works by 37 artists. Two- and three-dimensional objects are organized into three galleries, each with its specific grouping of work.

Georgia, The South, and The Next Wave are the themes highlighting the accomplishments of these vernacular artists who have not received any significant formal training in the visual arts. This exhibit is drawn primarily from private collections, making it a unique viewing opportunity.

Visitors are greeted in the Cultural Center lobby with Mr. Imagination’s (Gregory Warmack) Full Figured Queen, a construction utilizing bottle caps, cloth, feathers and mixed media applied to a wooden post sculpture. This work sets the stage for viewers that any materials may be used in artistic works. This is a hallmark of much folk art.

The Georgia-themed gallery includes work by George and Benny Andrews, father and son artists local to the Madison, Ga., area. George, the father, was an artist and poet who “saw beauty through every pore, who was called to create, regardless of circumstances.” He painted almost anything and everything he could get his hands on: A metal flour sifter, women’s shoes, a wall clock and a chair are included in this gallery of the exhibit. Son Benny’s more traditional oil-on-canvas Self-Portrait hangs nearby.

Perhaps the most widely known Georgia folk artist is the Rev. Howard Finster. Two Finster paintings are shown. Finster’s works are usually covered with text, usually taken directly from, or paraphrasing, scripture. These writings comment on many social issues of today. A large enamel paint-on-poster, People Are Making Toys Out of Big and Dangerous Things, specifically mentions atom bombs. One of Finster’s non-religious paintings, John Hancock, was selected as the image used in all exhibit advertising and the gallery guide. Finster also is known for his folk art environment, Paradise Gardens, currently undergoing restoration.

The Georgia gallery also includes such diverse works and subjects as Leroy Almon’s carved and painted wood plaque, Assassination; a Mattie Lou O’Kelley gouache-on-paper pastoral scene; and examples of J. B. Murray’s visual language that only he can understand.

Folk art is frequently described by its general subject material. One category, memory painters, delivers a rich recollection of times past. Linda Anderson’s Putting Food By has a number of mini-scenes including stringing peppers, cooking in a cast iron pot on an open fire, shelling peas, feeding geese, as well as a full washtub of laundry sitting by the well. Another category, visionary art, would include Bible scenes, lettered scripture or “spiritual messages” in visual form.

Examples of artists and their work that represent the South in this exhibit are Louisiana’s Clementine Hunter, Reginald Mitchell (New Orleans) and David Butler; Alabama’s Lonnie Holley (Birmingham), Ronald Lockett (Besemmer), Brenda Davis (Tuskeegee), Jimmy Lee Sudduth (Fayette County) and Thornton Dial, who worked in Bessemer. Mississippi had produced Roger Rice. Miami gave us Purvis Young; Texas, Eddie Arning; and North Carolina, Minnie Evans. Altogether, 17 artists’ works are included in this gallery.

The styles, media and subject matter could not be more diverse. Clementine Hunter’s work is memory painting, images from her recollection of actual events and places in her lifetime. Her simple paintings usually focus on church activities, including weddings, funerals and baptisms; and plantation life – especially cotton picking and other crop tasks – with scenes in bold color and form.

Lonnie Holley may be the most diverse artist represented, not only in this gallery, but in all of folk art. The two examples in this exhibit are three-dimensional constructions of various found materials including bones, metal, feathers, cloth and even an artificial flower.

Thornton Dial also worked in a wide range of materials. Three pieces in this exhibit include a charcoal and pastel-on-paper, watercolor and graphite-on-paper and a mixed media-on-wood.

The shared elements of many of these artists are their limited means, which translated into use of any available materials, and their lack of formal art training. They typically used whatever skills they had acquired in either their rural environment or from working in factories.

The Next Wave portion of the exhibit attempts to show the new and future directions of folk art. There is still a sense of place and a lacking of formal art education, but many artists are now utilizing standard art materials. The strong religious and spiritual base of the South continues to be expressed but through more modern means such as space travel and philosophical images. John Culver’s marker and ink-on-paper Alexandra 2 is a space ship named after his daughter that is seeking Paradise in the universe.

Three works by North Carolina artist William Fields are the result of his trance-like encounters with various spiritual traditions. He works in pastel and colored pencil and produces soft and sensitive images. His works reflect 40 years of study into Eastern spiritual and philosophical traditions.

German born Melissa Polhamus likewise regards her work as spontaneous and intuitive, coming from a dream-like narrative. Creatures are busy in many of her watercolors, which include strange objects and faith symbols.

George Lowe, with four works included in the exhibit, is primarily a television professional who regards his folk art effort as “his happiness.” Regardless, his topics include such recent themes as The FEMA Trailer of Forbidden Love, a watercolor-on-paper.

A few of the works in this exhibit are available for purchase.

This exhibit offers both an introduction to folk art for the casual observer or neophyte and a collection of excellent, rarely seen examples of a broad range of artists, styles, materials and subjects for those more knowledgeable viewers.

For information on these, visit Main Street Madison’s website at www.MainStreetMadisonGa.org, Chamber of Commerce website at www.madisonga.org, or the Madison Morgan Cultural Center at (706) 342-4743 or www.mmcc-arts.org