Motel Art to
Masterpiece
It all started
over breakfast one morning when Phil Materio and his daughter were reading the Sunday
paper. The 1996 article was about a
group of mid-century African American painters who made a side living by
peddling their landscape oils. Jim Crow laws still reigned in South Florida and
forced people of color to take low paying jobs. The enterprising men—later dubbed
“The Highwaymen”— would pitch their paintings to tourists, residents and shop
owners. Originally selling from 17 to 75 dollars each, the painters knew they
weren’t creating great art; they were just trying to make ends meet. Soon the
artwork decorated the walls of banks, motels, attorney and dental offices. The news
column went on to say that although the value of these landscapes was on the
rise, they could still be found for a steal at garage sales, thrift shops and
flea markets.
As a stained glass
artist and craftsman, Mr. Materio’s interest was immediately piqued and he and
his daughter went right out to Lake Worth’s antique row to see what they could
find. The first store they walked into surprisingly revealed three Highwaymen paintings.
Phil scooped them up for $17 to $26 a piece. His interest quickly turned into a
veritable obsession and propelled him into a statewide search for Highwaymen
art. With a self-imposed limit of $100 per painting, he scoured the state for
these new found treasures.
Who’d have
thought a mere news article could launch a lifelong quest?
Materio didn’t
always have to travel far in order to build his collection. One of his
neighbors was a doctor. When Phil asked him if he happened to have any of these
paintings in his office, surprisingly, he said that he owned three. Phil was
happy his neighbor agreed to sell two for $100.
Through his
search, Materio acquired a deep knowledge of Florida’s social, political and
cultural history. The Highwaymen community was centered in the Fort Pierce area,
spearheaded by American Impressionist Albert Backus. Considered the “Dean of
Florida Landscape painting,” Backus’ bohemian air fostered inclusion of all races
and classes. He would invite people of every stratum to his house for art-centered
gatherings.
One such guest
was Alfred Hair who became one of Backus’ most enthusiastic students and a Highwaymen
leader. Like other African Americans who worked in packing houses, factories
and farms, he was a laborer. Ambitious and hard-working, Alfred set his sights
on two things: (1) a Cadillac and, (2) a house in Miami. Under the tutelage of
Albert Backus, Hair began painting scenes of Florida’s terrain and skies in exaggerated
colors; palms, Poinciana, grasses, rivers and lakes, mountainous clouds and
flaming sunsets. Costs were minimized by using crown molding for frames and
painting on Upson board (compressed fibers) instead of canvas. After Alfred
sold enough artwork he bought his prized Cadillac. When envious friends asked
where he got the money, Alfred invited them to join him in his painting
venture. Alfred trained them in the Backus style, but no one could paint as
fast as Hair. It was said he could finish one painting in an hour. Unfazed by
potential competition, Backus had told his art students, “I don’t care if you
paint like me as long as you sell them for cheap.”
The artists sold
their works door-to-door, along roadsides and out of their trunks, sometimes
with the paint still wet. The 26 “official” Highwaymen included Alfred Hair, Harold
Newton, Roy McClendon, Livingston Roberts, Al Black, Hezekiah Baker, James
Gibson and Mary Ann Carroll—the sole female—to name a few.
Alfred Hair
never got his home in Miami, as his life was cut short in 1970, but he endowed
Floridians with a unique genre of far more worth than a house. It took a while,
however, for the art form to rise from mediocrity to fine art. Well into the 80s
the Florida landscape paintings were still relegated to motel walls and
dentists offices.
It wasn’t until
the early 2000s that the works started to appreciate. A few books and movies documented
the Highwaymen’s story of struggle and success and generated a new public
interest. The popularity prompted dealers to raise prices. Materio says it’s
remarkable that in two decades, while many collectibles have dropped in price,
these paintings have suffered no decline. They now command sales in the 3 and 4-digit range.
While Phil had amassed
hundreds of Highwaymen pieces, he wondered if this was the only art of note in
the Sunshine State. Were there other Florida-based painters to be discovered?
After reading Mabel Mann’s Art in Florida,
he learned that there were three main creative hubs: Saint Augustine, Sarasota
and Palm Beach. Materio threw himself
into gathering the artwork of these communities. His blue-collar philosophy (much
like a good stock investor’s) was to buy undervalued pieces and watch them
appreciate. After twenty years of collecting, 500 paintings and two storage
units, his McMow Art Glass studio walls are a testament to his passion.
In Part Two of Journey of a Blue-Collar Collector, share
in Phil Materio’s discoveries of images of Sarasota’s circus oddities, Palm
Beach’s mansions that no longer exist and St. Augustine’s charming street
scenes that have survived the centuries.
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| Phil in his MCMOW Glass Art Studio |
