NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 16, 2004 — The New Orleans Museum of Art presents the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the work of Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980), one of the country's most notable self-taught folk artists. The exhibition runs from Nov. 14, 2004 through Jan. 16, 2005.
"If you wonder what it means to say that art is a calling, don't miss the ethereal TOOLS OF HER MINISTRY: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan. … It would be heaven if works like hers were eternally before our eyes. The world not being heaven, this is your opportunity to see them. The day has come, as Sister Morgan might say," asserted The New York Times' Chief Art Critic Michael Kimmelman in an article published on Feb. 27, 2004.
Sister Gertrude Morgan was an African American missionary, preacher, artist, musician, poet and writer who lived and worked in New Orleans in the 1960s and 1970s.
The exhibition comprises about 100 paintings and decorated objects and focuses on her artwork which she utilized as a tool for her ministry as an evangelist street preacher. Organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York and curated by NOMA's own William A. Fagaly, the show reveals new facts of her life and uncovers art never seen in public.
Sister Gertrude's legendary sermons, street-corner preaching and unique artwork made her one of the most revered characters in recent American folk art history. Self-taught folk artists, or outsider artists have no formal artistic training. Instead, they choose to work outside the artistic mainstream, deriving subject matter from spiritual inspiration, personal surroundings and life experiences.
Frequently, like Sister Gertrude, these self-taught artists create intuitively and spontaneously, often recycling found objects and materials into their artwork. Sister Gertrude possessed a profound religious faith. Her many talents served as a vehicle for, and material extensions of, her calling to serve God and spread the gospel.
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