After World War I, artists without formal training “crashed the gates” of major museums in the United States, diversifying the art world across lines of race, ethnicity, class, ability, and gender. At the center of this fundamental reevaluation of who could be an artist in America were John Kane, Horace Pippin, and Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses. The stories of these three artists not only intertwine with the major critical debates of their period but also prefigure the call for inclusion in representations of American art today. Their gatecrashing paved the way for subsequent generations of self-taught artists whose work has greatly diversified the narratives of American art. The Westmoreland is a lender to this exhibition and is the 3rd venue on the tour.

Organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Katherine Jentleson, Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, High Museum of Art.

The Westmoreland will organize Self-Taught Artists from Southwestern Pennsylvania as a complimentary exhibition to Gatecrashers in our Post-1950s Gallery.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation.

Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in America is also generously supported by The Heinz Endowments and the Hillman Exhibition Fund of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art.