Frank Calloway (July 2, 1915 – September 1, 2014) was an American self-taught artist. Diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...

in 1952, he was committed to

Bryce Hospital Bryce Hospital opened in 1861 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is Alabama's oldest and largest inpatient psychiatric facility. First known as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane and later as the Alabama Insane Hospital, the buildi ...

and the Alabama Department of Mental Health in Tuscaloosa. He lived in the Alice M. Kidd Nursing Facility in Tuscaloosa. His imagery was primarily agrarian, depicting the Old American South as he remembered it. He drew on butcher paper using crayons, pen and markers. The scrolls were either 24 or 36 inches high and Calloway made them anywhere from 8 to over 60 feet in length.Frank Calloway at Andrew Edlin
Elisabeth Kley, ''art net''. Accessed online December 15, 2011. While he claimed to be 112 years of age in 2008, research by gerontology experts deduced that he was actually born in 1915.
''Gerontology Research Group''. Accessed online 5 October 2009

Work

While Calloway had always done some drawing, his prolific output as an artist dates from the time he took an art class in the 1980s. Some of his drawings, most of which portray the rural

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

of his youth, were part of an autumn 2008 exhibit at the

American Visionary Art Museum The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is an art museum located in Baltimore, Maryland's Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway. The museum specializes in the preservation and display of outsider art (also known as "intuitive art," "raw ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

.At 112, artist still going strong
, ''CNN / Associated Press''. Accessed online 21 July 2008

Select solo exhibitions

2011''Frank Calloway'', Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York 2009''Frank Calloway: Pageants from the Old South'', Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York 2006Kentuck Museum, Northport, AL

Select group exhibitions

2009''In Through the Out Door'', Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York 2008-09''Marriage of Science, Art and Philosophy'', the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD 2006''Consumer Art Exhibition'', Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL

References

External links

Andrew Edlin Gallery
NYC Gallery representing the work of Frank Calloway 1915 births 2014 deaths 20th-century African-American artists 20th-century American male artists 21st-century African-American artists 21st-century American male artists African-American illustrators 20th-century American illustrators Artists from Alabama People from Tuscaloosa, Alabama People with schizophrenia American artists with disabilities 21st-century American illustrators {{US-illustrator-stub

Work

Select solo exhibitions

Select group exhibitions

Further reading

References

External links