Date of Submission
Spring 2019
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Art History
Project Advisor 1
Susan Aberth
Abstract/Artist's Statement
An analysis of self-taught artists in the American South centered on the concept of the 'yard show.' This is an in-depth examination of the manner in which evangelical rhetoric and doctrine effects signage, painting, and sculpture. This involves an exploration of the history of evangelicalism in the Southern United States, a critique of the role of the museum in self-taught art, and an analysis of missionary intentions and cults of personality surrounding work by untrained artist. Artist examined in this paper include: Howard Finster, Joe Minter, Herman Dennis, Mary Proctor, Sister Gertrude Morgan, and Nellie Mae Rowe. Thornton Dial and Lonnie Holley are featured tangentially.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Boatwright, Flora Abigail, "Examining Evangelicalism: The Power of Signage, Painting and Sculpture in the Southern Yard Show" (2019). Senior Projects Spring 2019. 166.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2019/166
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Bard Off-campus DownloadBard College faculty, staff, and students can login from off-campus by clicking on the Off-campus Download button and entering their Bard username and password.