Learn About Folk Art and Some of the Most Famous Outsider Artists

10 Famous Folk Artists Who Carry on the Tradition of Creative Expression

By Sara Barnes on October 29, 2017

Gee's Bend Quiltmakers

Photo: Arthur Rothstein, photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In a tradition that dates back to the mid 19th century, the Quilts of Gee's Bend are made by the women in a remote black community in Alabama. They have produced countless patchwork textiles and attracted the attention of people from around the world. Clad in electrifying geometric patterns—that are often improvised—their work challenges the conventions of quilt-making.

By Billvolckening (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

A post shared by Jenny Hampe (@sauerkrautmissionary22) on Oct 25, 2017 at 2:47pm PDT

Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City
Wikiart

Anna Mary Robertson, aka Grandma Moses, was a farm wife who started her painting seriously at the age of 78. Proving you're never too old to try something new, her “simple realism” celebrates the quiet beauty of rural life. She had a thriving career until she was 101 years old, with her art adorning the likes of greeting cards and other merchandise.

Joseph Yoakum

At age 76, Joseph Yoakum began recording his memories that took the form of imaginary landscapes. During the last decade of his life, he produced over 2,000 drawings influenced by his life; he said that he was born on a Navajo reservation near Window Rock Arizona and was a storyteller at heart. He claimed to have traveled the world doing a number of odd jobs. Making art was when he really settled down, however, and he produced one or two drawings a day until his death on Christmas morning in 1972.

Mt. Swan of Darling Mountain Range Near Perth of Western Australia, 1968
The Anthony Petullo Collection

Martín Ramírez

UNTITLED (Horse and Rider)
Photo: Rick Gardner

Martín Ramírez spent the last 15 years in his life in a California institution for mental illness. During that time, he created nearly 300 large-scale drawings of horseback riders, trains, and more using materials available to him.

UNTITLED (Three VW Vans)
Photo: Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

UNTITLED (Horse and Rider)
Photo: Gavin Ashworth

James Castle

James Castle is best known for his handmade books and constructions that he created for nearly 70 years. Born in a small Idaho town, he was profoundly deaf and didn't attend school until he was nearly 10 years old. It's unknown if Castle ever learned sign language (or if he knew how to read), but the written word would often come up in his drawings and handmade books. The images, which depict interiors, buildings, and landscapes, were produced with soot from a woodstove (among other things) and applied to the paper with his own saliva.

Vestie Davis

Bethesda Fountain, 1964
Photo: Gavin Ashworth

Like Grandma Moses, Vestie Davis filled his compositions with nostalgic scenes. While Moses focused on the farm, Davis depicted the hustle and bustle of New York from the 1950s to the 1970s, in fear that the city would not stay as he remembered it because of its continual evolution.

IRT 3rd Avenue Elevated, 1965
Photo: Gavin Ashworth

City Hall, 1975
Photo: John Parnell

Judith Scott

Photo: Creative Growth

Born in 1943 with Down syndrome and profound deafness, Judith Scott was institutionalized for 35 years of her life. Judith came to art after her twin sister, Joyce, became her legal guardian in 1986 and moved her to the Creative Growth Art Center in California from Ohio. After observing a fiber artist, Judith started “spontaneously” creating layered sculptures that were each completely unique.