Original art by Florida's Highwaymen to be sold by Baterbys, Feb. 19 & 26 Several original works of art by Florida’s legendary Highwaymen will be sold at the Baterbys Art Auction Gallery 2011 Winter Auction, slated for Feb. 19 and 26 in Delray Beach and Orlando, Florida.
News-Antique.com - Feb 07,2011 - (ORLANDO, Fla.) – Several original works of art by Florida’s legendary Highwaymen – the loosely affiliated group of African-American artists who eked out a meager living mainly in the Fort Pierce area of Florida, from the 1950s to the 1970s – will be sold at the Baterbys Art Auction Gallery 2011 Winter Auction, slated for Feb. 19 and 26 in Delray Beach and Orlando.
The paintings will be part of Baterbys’ first-ever Discovery Consignment Auction, in which consignors are asked to “Turn Your Art Into Quick Cash.” Highwaymen art will be sold on Saturday, Feb. 19, at the firm’s Palm Beach Gallery (13900 South Jog Road in Delray Beach) and the following Saturday, Feb. 26, at the main gallery in Orlando (at 9101 International Drive).
The Highwaymen were so-named because they’d often sell their works – still wet – on the side of the road or out of the trunk of a car. The paint surface was whatever was handy – usually inexpensive roofing material. The frame (if there was a frame at all) was simple crown moulding. There were 26 Highwaymen. All were men (except one woman, Mary Ann Carroll).
The artists latched onto art as away to escape a more grueling fate: picking or crating oranges in the local groves, under a pounding sun. The sold their works for about $25 to tourists or appreciating locals. The images were raw and primal, depicting idyllic views of the Florida landscape, before rampant development would reconfigure the state’s topography forever.
The Highwaymen couldn’t have realized it at the time, but by creating such evovative themes in their work, they were satisfying buyers’ needs and laying the base for a huge demand in the future. The artists produced about 50,000 oil paintings before unofficially disbanding in the 1980s. But today, an original work by one of the Highwaymen brings thousands of dollars.
The original Highwaymen paintings in Baterby’s 2011 Winter Auction will include the following:
An oil on canvas painting by Sam Newton, titled Sunset Over the Water, signed in paint lower right, framed, image area: 23 inches by 35 inches, in good condition.
An oil on board painting by Alfred Hair, titled Fort Pierce
Atlantic Ocean, signed in paint lower left, framed, image area: 23 inches by 35 ½ inches, in good condition.
An oil on board painting by Willie Daniels, titled Sunrise Over the Water, signed in paint lower right, framed, image area: 23 inches by 37 ½ inches, in good condition.
An oil on board painting by James Gibson, titled Moonlight Palm Tree, hand-signed in paint lower right, framed, image area: 21 inches by 36 inches, in good condition.
An unsigned original oil on canvas painting by Roy A. McClendon, done in 2000, framed, image area: 18 inches by 24 inches, signed lower right, very good condition.
The birth of the Highwaymen can be traced to 1954 in Fort Pierce, Fla., when the young African-American painter Harold Newton met an established white painter named Albert “Beanie” Backus. Backus
