Images(5)

Dixie Land

Date1985

Artist Josephus Farmer (1894-1989)

OriginAmerica, Wisconsin, Milwaukee

MediumWood, paint, putty, wire, textile, leather (?), oil cloth (?), carpet, iron,

DimensionsOverall: 16 7/16 x 11 15/16in. (41.8 x 30.3cm)

Credit LineGift of Ellin and Baron Gordon

Object number2006.701.2

DescriptionA narrative sculptural assemblage set on a plywood base covered with green indoor-outdoor carpeting. A black man steers a plow pulled by a horse; beside the man stand several cotton plants bearing bolls. At the rear of the base stands a white, lettererd arch, from which a lettered wooden plaque is suspended.
Label TextLike many southern Blacks born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Josephus Farmer moved north in search of a better life. After leaving Tennessee for Wisconsin, he worked at a variety of jobs, but his true calling was the ministry. By the late 1960s, Farmer focused solely on spreading the word, but he carved and sold works of art in his spare time to help finance that work.

Farmer dealt with the legacy of slavery in many of his artworks, including this mixed-media tableau. Here he depicted a Black farmer guiding a mule-drawn plow through a cotton field to call out the unfulfilled promise made by the federal government at the end of the Civil War: that each newly freed person would receive 40 acres and a mule.