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The Highwaymen Collector

A comprehensive resource for Highwaymen Art Collectors

We Buy Highwaymen Paintings!

This website includes up-to-date Highwaymen news, a growing library of in-depth blogs and original research on the Highwaymen artists, valuable art pricing guidelines and pricing trends, conservation issues and services related to Highwaymen paintings, as well as a high quality group of paintings always for sale.

All of the information on this website is openly available at no charge.  However, some information (individual artist pricing guides, and historical blogs) do require a free website registration. This registration may be completed on either the blog or pricing pages.  Once registered, all information on this website is always provided at no charge.

The Highwaymen Collector website focuses primarily on the 26 Highwaymen artists, as defined by the Florida Artists Hall of Fame (“FHOF”) in 2004.

 

The Last Great Art Movement of the 20th Century

In the l960s, a group of young, Black Americans barely out of high school, taught themselves to paint as a way to earn a decent living and escape the underpaid labor in the citrus groves and packinghouses of the segregated, Jim Crow South. With no money for proper supplies, they painted using left-over construction material called Upson board, house paint and frames made from pieces of floor molding and scrap wood. To have enough paintings to sell, they painted quickly, creating a distinctive, colorful style that captured the stormy clouds, windy waves, quiet marshes and deserted beaches of a still undeveloped Florida.

Traveling up and down Central Florida’s highways, they hawked their paintings from the backs of cars for around $20 to $40 each. They sold to roadside motels, banks, doctor’s offices and tourists, producing over 200,000 pieces. Because of their “outsider” status, they never received the recognition and respect from the arts community they deserved, but always yearned to be called “artists.”

Their long journey to cultural respect began in the early 1990s when a curator and art journalist discovered their work in flea markets, antique shops and garage sales. Upon learning how their art was originally produced and sold, he named them “The Highwaymen.”

The Highwaymen initially painted to escape poverty, and today their art adorns the walls of respected museums, governor mansions…and even the White House. Collectors now pay in excess of $50,000 for these cherished works. After the ravages and fortune of friendships, jealousy, murder, hope and triumph, The Highwaymen have become an integral part of art history.

Of the 26 Highwaymen artists, nine are considered “original” (or the earliest) Highwaymen:

  • Al Black
  • Mary Ann Carroll
  • Willie Daniels
  • James Gibson
  • Alfred Hair
  • Roy McLendon
  • Harold Newton
  • Sam Newton
  • Livingston Roberts

The additional 17 Highwaymen artists include:

  • Curtis Arnett
  • Hezekiah Baker
  • Ellis Buckner
  • George Buckner
  • Robert Butler
  • Johnny Daniels
  • Rodney Demps
  • Isaac Knight
  • Robert Lewis
  • John Maynor
  • Alfonso Moran
  • Lemuel Newton
  • Willie Reagan
  • Cornell “Pete” Smith
  • Charles Walker
  • Sylvester Wells
  • Charles “Chico” Wheeler

Note: This website does not attempt to review or discuss the basic background and history of The Highwaymen, which is covered in abundance on numerous Highwaymen websites. Such basic background on the Highwaymen are clearly and concisely provided in the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Highwaymen_(landscape_artists)

This website primarily addresses the 26 Highwaymen artists as acknowledged by the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.  There is  growing confusion surrounding work of art by artists commonly identified as “Highwaymen Style”, “Highwaymen-Like”, “Highwaymen Inspired”, etc., and those artists related to the Highwaymen, often referred to as “Second Generation Highwaymen”. While there are many beautiful paintings in the market, and many great Florida artists, this website will remain focused on the original group of 26 Highwaymen.