Main Library Exhibits
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Creation Date
9-26-2024
Description
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.
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