Skip to Content

Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe

June 1, 2021 | Katherine Jentleson

September 3, 2021–January 9, 2022

Untitled (Dandy) by Nellie Mae Rowe

Nellie Mae Rowe (American, 1900–1982), Untitled (Dandy), 1980, crayon and pencil on paper, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Harvie and Charles Abney, 2021.40. © 2021 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Mike Jensen.

During the last decade and a half of her life, Nellie Mae Rowe (1900–1982) lived on a busy thoroughfare in Vinings and
welcomed visitors to her “Playhouse,” which she decorated with found-object installations, handmade dolls, chewing-gum sculptures, and hundreds of drawings. Based on the High’s leading collection of Rowe’s art, this exhibition of about seventy works is the first to consider her practice as a radical act of self-expression and liberation in the South after the civil rights movement. Rowe created her first works as a child in rural Fayetteville, Georgia, but only found the time and space to reclaim her artistic practice in the late 1960s following the deaths of her second husband and her longtime employer.

As the first major exhibition on Rowe in more than twenty years, Really Free will offer an unprecedented view of how she cultivated her drawing practice late in life, starting with colorful, at times simple sketches on found materials in the 1960s and moving toward her most celebrated, highly complex compositions on paper of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Through photographs and scenes from an experimental documentary on her life, which includes an artful reconstruction of her Playhouse, visitors will experience the lively art environment Rowe created in and outside of her home.

Exhibition catalogue available for purchase at the Museum Shop and at museumshop.high.org. Members receive 10% off Shop purchases.

RELATED PROGRAMS

Curatorial Exhibition Introduction: Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in America and Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe
Thursday, August 19, 6 p.m., Zoom

Join Katherine Jentleson as she introduces the High’s newest Folk and Self-Taught Art exhibitions, Gatecrashers and Really Free. Jentleson, the High’s Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, will give an overview of both exhibitions and talk about her recently published catalogues. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about these two groundbreaking exhibitions on view at the High!

The Power of the “Playhouse”
Thursday, September 23, 6 p.m., Zoom

Nellie Mae Rowe’s famed home that served as an art environment for guests to visit may no longer exist, but its legacy lives on through this exhibition. Join our panelists as we look at the space Rowe’s Playhouse occupied in larger histories of Atlanta and how artists’ homes continue to be spaces for art appreciation and community engagement.

Visit High.org for details.

This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

Generous support for the national tour of Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe is provided by Art Bridges.

MAJOR FUNDING FOR THIS EXHIBITION IS PROVIDED BY
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
The Judith Alexander Foundation
Judith Alexander and Henry Alexander
Troutman Pepper

PREMIER EXHIBITION SERIES SPONSOR
Delta Air Lines

EXHIBITION SERIES SPONSOR
Northside Hospital

PREMIER EXHIBITION SERIES SUPPORTERS
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Dr. Joan H. Weens Estate
wish Foundation

BENEFACTOR EXHIBITION SERIES SUPPORTERS
Anne Cox Chambers Foundation
Robin and Hilton Howell

AMBASSADOR EXHIBITION SERIES SUPPORTERS
The Antinori Foundation
Corporate Environments
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
Elizabeth and Chris Willett

CONTRIBUTING EXHIBITION SERIES SUPPORTERS
Farideh and Al Azadi
Sandra and Dan Baldwin
Lucinda W. Bunnen
Marcia and John Donnell
Helen C. Griffith
Mrs. Fay S. Howell/The Howell Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
The Arthur R. and Ruth D. Lautz Charitable Foundation
Joel Knox and Joan Marmo
Margot and Danny McCaul
The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust
The Fred and Rita Richman Fund
In Memory of Elizabeth B. Stephens
USI Insurance Services
Mrs. Harriet H. Warren

GENEROUS SUPPORT IS ALSO PROVIDED BY
Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund