Louisiana Legend & Artist: Clementine Hunter

A community program will be held at the Carver-McDonald Branch Library at 2941 Renwick St. Monroe, LA on Thursday September 21, 2023 at 11:30 am by Tom Whitehead, a retired journalist professor from LSU. Tom Whitehead is a leading expert on Hunter’s works of Art. Clementine Hunter born late December 1886 or early January 1887 – January 1, 1988) and the first of seven children. Clementeen Hunter was a self-taught Black folk artist from the Cane River region of Louisiana, who lived and worked on Melrose Plantation. Hunter was born into a Louisiana Creole family at Hidden Hill Plantation near Cloutierville, in Natchitoches Parish. LA. She started working as a farm laborer when young, and never learned to read or write. In her fifties, she began to sell her paintings, which soon gained local and national attention for their complexity in depicting Black Southern life in the early 20th century. Clementine Hunter initially sold her first paintings for as little as 25 cents. But by the end of her life, her work was being exhibited in museums and sold by dealers for thousands of dollars. Clementine Hunter produced an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 paintings in her lifetime. Hunter was granted an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1986, and she is the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the present-day New Orleans Museum of Art. More info 318-327-1477.