Steve Ashby (1904–1980) was an American folk artist. The son of an emancipated slave, Ashby was born in Delaplane,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, one of twelve children. He received little formal schooling, and remained illiterate for his entire life. He spent most of his life in Delaplane except for a short time as a waiter at a hotel in nearby

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

; for the bulk of that time he worked the farm where his father and previous generations of his family had been enslaved. Late in his twenties, he married an older woman, Eliza King, who was a cook at a boarding school for girls, and they moved into an abandoned

one-room schoolhouse One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

. They had no children, but adopted a boy. Throughout his life Ashby was interested in sculpture, making mostly small wooden pieces before his wife's death in 1960. It was after that date, and his retirement from farming, that he began to create his "fixing-ups", as he called them, larger figure sculptures that he used to decorate his house and yard. Made largely from pieces of timber and lumber, they were augmented with paint, pieces of old clothing, magazine cut-outs, and other found objects. Lively and expressionistic, they are often quite erotic; some of his kinetic pieces depict explicitly sexual activity. His first piece was a depiction of his deceased wife, completely dressed in her clothing. The narratives hinted at by Ashby's pieces are ambiguous, but contain undertones of the racial tensions prominent in American society during the period as well as images suggested by popular culture such as

Blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

films. Others are inspired by the agricultural activities prevalent in the area surrounding Delaplane. A single sculpture made out of concrete is also known. Ashby began to gain recognition for his art late in life. Eight pieces by Ashby are in the collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, while three are held at the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...

. Other work is owned by

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

References

1904 births 1980 deaths People from Fauquier County, Virginia Sculptors from Virginia American male sculptors 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists Farmers from Virginia African-American sculptors African-American farmers 20th-century African-American artists {{US-sculptor-stub