M. B. Mayfield (1923-2005), African American visionary artist and memory painter, “unofficially” attended art classes at the University of Mississippi in 1949-1952, prior to the integration of the university by James Howard Meredith in 1962. Professor Stuart Purser, the first chair of the university’s art department, arranged for Mayfield to work as a janitor so the talented twenty-six-year-old, self-taught artist could observe Purser’s art instruction unnoticed from a janitor’s closet near Purser's classroom. For two and a half years, Mayfield studied with Purser, learning studio arts in secret to circumvent racial segregation and Jim Crow.

Mayfield moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1969, where he began working as a janitor and later a security guard at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. In Memphis, Mayfield connected with other artists. He embraced the music culture of the city and further developed his artistic focus. When Mayfield left Memphis in 1979 to return to Ecru, Miss., his art became associated with a revival period for African American folk art taking place in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The movement helped popularize Mayfield’s paintings with a larger audience, and he was invited to exhibit at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Mississippi, and many museums and galleries in the Southeastern and Southwestern United States. His art and life story became the subject of interviews, book chapters, documentary television, and later an award-winning documentary film.

An exhibit of Mayfield's paintings titled By M.B. Mayfield is on display at UM Museum from August 2024-August 2025. It includes paintings on loan from the M.B. Mayfield House Museum in Ecru that Mayfield painted while living in Memphis. Judy (Jewel) Taylor purchased four paintings from Mayfield during the time they worked together at Brooks. A Christmas card and letter from Taylor to Mayfield is displayed in the fourth panel. A print of Playmates, one of the paintings that Taylor purchased from Mayfield, is displayed in the Library's atrium window.

Library exhibit panels

Images provided courtesy of the M.B. Mayfield Foundation

• Download: PDF of panels with annotations