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This entry was taken directly from the “Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American FOLK ART and ARTISTS,” by Chuck and Jan Rosenak. (Abbeville Press, NYC, 1990).
BIGRAPHICAL DATA
Born January 6, 1900, Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Attended school through sixth grade. Married Mary Davis, 1941; separated, date unknown. Married Georgia Verges, date unknown; she died 1987. No known children. Resided in Memphis, Tennessee until his death in 1996.
GENERAL BACKGROUND
Henry Speller is a black folk artist whose inventive, colorful renderings of round-faced, long-legged figures that he identifies as “characters from’ Dallas’” have brought him recognition.
Born to a family of Mississippi sharecroppers, Speller spent much of his early life working in the cotton fields. His first wife was from Memphis, and they moved there in 1941. The couple moved from place to place in the big city and Speller went from job to job. He was a “junky” (one who collects scrap metal) for a period and later a grounds keeper for the city parks commission, retiring in the middle 1960s.
After his retirement the artist lived in a housing project far removed from the Memphis that tourists visit. He spent his days sitting on a tubular steel chair in front of a turned on TV set and sketching.
ARTISTIC BACKGROUND
Henry Speller started drawing when he moved to Memphis in 1941. After he retired, he devoted much more time to his art. At the end of his life Speller’s eyesight began to fail.
Speller was discovered and documented by folklorist Ray Allen in the early 1980s. Allen arranged for a showing of his work by the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee, and for representation of the artist by the Luise Ross gallery in New York City.
SUBJECTS AND SOURCES
Speller draws scenes from his own life experience: houses, cars, riverboats, animals, and human figures. He is best known for his repetitive renderings of round-faced, long-legged men and women who wear patterned clothing, sometimes with exposed breasts and genitalia. Speller calls them “characters from ‘Dallas.’” He costumes his Dallas personages in bizarre, vaguely western attire decorated with multicolored patterns.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Speller draws on large sheets of paper (19 by 20 inches), outlining his subjects with a graphite pencil and filling in with crayon and colored pencils. Except for his single-figure drawings, Speller fills all available space on the paper, often by use of patterns.
Because of Speller’s many moves within the city of Memphis, some of his drawings have been lost. However, it is believed that several hundred have survived.
ARTISTIC RECOGNITION
Henry Speller’s art is tough and direct but does not appeal to everyone. His Dallas characterizations from the late 1970s and early 1980s are his most sought-after work.
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