Beschreibung:

American, 20th century, mixed media. Signed SISTER MORGAN to the left of the group of people and self-titled below the signature. Likely executed on cardboard salvaged from a cereal box; in multicolor tempera paint and embellished with hand written Biblical verses in ink. Painted in a naive, child-like style, it depicts an empty coffin at the lower right with a dark blue sky above; at the center is a gold rectangular area containing what appears to be Jesus with five disciples. A long string of Biblical verses fills the area below the gold rectangle. Likely in the original wooden frame under glass; 9" x 12" (w/o frame), 13" x 16" (w/frame). (Sister) Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980), African-American street evangelist and painter, was born in Lafayette, Alabama. She had a "divine visitation" in her kitchen in 1934 after which she left her family to become an evangelist, settling in New Orleans. With only a third grade education, at age 39, she became a street preacher for a fundamentalist sect, started an orphanage and built a small church. The church was destroyed by a hurricane in 1965, when she then focused her activities on spreading the Gospel with her paintings. She continued to paint and preach on street corners in the French Quarter until her death. One of the most noteworthy painters of the "outsider art" genre, a traveling exhibit of her work was organized in 2005 by the American Folk Art Museum with an accompanying catalog. Articles pertaining to her work have been published often. Condition: Painting has shifted on mat; mat with toning. Not removed from frame.