"When other people have something they don’t know what to do with, they throw it away, but not me. I’m going to make something out of it. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been that way. I would take nothing and make something."  -Nellie Mae Rowe 

 

Born on July 4, 1900, Nellie Mae Rowe’s creative spirit seems to have been predestined. Her father was an expert basketmaker and blacksmith, and her mother was a quiltmaker and gospel singer. From the outside, Rowe's life as a rural Georgia native might've seemed fraught with racial injustice and poverty, but the interior universe Rowe created was one of wonder. 

Self-taught, Rowe would utilize 'everyday' materials as a vehicle to express her creativity in the form of mixed media works on paper, chewing gum sculptures, hand-sewn dolls, and reimagined photographs, among other inventive formats. 

The reemergence of Rowe's work in recent years is a testament to her creative legacy, and the ways in which her life-long necessity to find freedom in expressing her creativity transcends time. A retrospective mounted at the Brooklyn Museum in 2022 contextualized "Rowe’s practice as a radical act of self-expression," and a recently released feature length documentary honors Rowe for her creative genius and "traces the lifespan of an artist who struggles to dedicate her life to art while exploring the personal and political events that shaped her singular body of work."

In a 1982 interview with Judith Alexander (courtesy of the Judith Alexander Foundation via the Souls Grown Deep), Rowe details her upbringing and influences of the humble environment that shaped her art-making practice. 

Now on View in the Digital Collections

Recently digitized, this selection of mixed media works on paper is a glimpse into the imaginative world of Nellie Mae Rowe. 

Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Red and Green Flower in Vase, 1978
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Blue Tree and Red Bird, 1978
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Butterfly, 1979
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Blue Bird, 1981
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tree of Life, 1980
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

White House (Mrs. Reagan asks Nellie to do a picture), 1982
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Green and Black Hen, 1980
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Picking Cotton, 1979
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Run Away Dog, 1982
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Boy, Old Man, Brown Dog, 1979
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Will Be Back When The Weather Get Cool, 1982
Mixed media on paper
Image of a mixed media artwork on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe

Works on Paper Collection, Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture © 2023 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Green Birds and Envelope, 1978
Mixed media on paper

New Documentary Film Telling Rowe's Story

"This World is Not My Own is a feature-length documentary film by Opendox. Chewing gum sculptures, a wealthy gallerist, a firebrand wrestler, a notorious murder case and the segregated south – it’s all part of Nellie Mae Rowe’s boundless universe. This World is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist’s world and her life spanning the 20th century." Visit the film's site for more details.

Credits

Curated by Kimberly Henderson, Digital Curator in collaboration with Tammi Lawson, Curator of the Art and Artifacts Division. With special thanks to Digital Imaging Services, and Copyright and Information Policy, NYPL.

This digital exhibition is made possible by the generous support of The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation

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