The latest exhibition at the Tubman Museum opens on Friday, September 24, 2021. The exhibition is Painter/Poet: The works of Arbon Lane. It features a suite of 21 paintings and poems created by the North Carolina based self-taught artist Arbon Lane (1932 – 2005).
Most of visionary artist Arbon Lane’s paintings were made with house paint on pieces of wood or roofing tin. His art depicted his memories of rural family life. Some illustrated the racial discrimination he faced, or the imagined lives of his enslaved ancestors. Although the scenes he created often depicted hardship, they also showed the joy in simple things and the importance of family and community.
In addition to painting, Lane also composed poems which he laboriously typed out on an old typewriter he recovered from the local dump. Eventually the poems, which were kept in a Bible, were accidentally discovered by a folk-art dealer. The art dealer challenged Lane to make paintings to accompany his poetry. Lane created 21 paintings to illustrate some of his poems. That suite of 21 Paintings and poems was acquired by educator and art collector Bob Hart. Hart donated the poems and paintings to the Tubman Museum in 2014.
Painter/Poet: The Works of Arbon Lane will be on exhibit in the BB&T Gallery on the second floor of the Tubman Museum through December 4, 2021. Contact the Tubman, 478-743-8544, for more information about this exhibit and other Museum programs.