Highwaymen: Florida's Outsider Artists (2003)

Sub-Genres - Art History, Race & Ethnicity  |   Run Time - 60 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Jason Buchanan

The outsider art of Florida's Highwaymen is explored in this documentary that shows how a group of amateur African-American landscape artists transcended racial prejudice to become an important part of Florida's 20th Century cultural heritage. Shut out of local art galleries due to segregation and prevailing racist attitudes, artists such as Alfred Hair and Harold Newton traveled the state selling their paintings out of the trunks of their cars for an average of $35 a piece. Though the majority of Highwaymen simply viewed their art as an easier alternative to such manual labor as picking oranges, the artistry that went into the vivid landscapes, frequently painted on wallboard, was undeniable and would later sell for thousands of dollars.

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Keywords

African-American, artist, Black [race], craftsmanship, painting, social-inequality