Nellie Mae Rowe

1900-1982 · Vinings, Georgia, USA

Widowed at 48, she declared the rest of her life her childhood, named her house the Playhouse, and filled it with drawings, dolls and sculptures of chewed gum.

The life

Rowe was born to a farming family in Georgia, the daughter of a formerly enslaved father, and spent decades in field and domestic work. After her second husband died in 1948 she gave herself permission to play, decorating her Vinings yard with found objects, dolls and drawings until it became a local spectacle, welcoming to visitors and irresistible to vandals. Gallerist Judith Alexander championed her from 1978, and the High Museum’s major 2021 retrospective, Really Free, sealed her place in American art.

The work

Joyous, densely patterned crayon and marker drawings of women, animals and dream creatures floating through flattened space, plus dolls and small sculptures modelled from chewing gum. The work radiates a freedom that was hard-earned and completely deliberate.

Why we love them

Art as reclaimed play, after a lifetime of labour. That is not softness; it is a manifesto.

Go deeper

• Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
• The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.

Kindred spirits

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