Gertrude Morgan
| Sister Gertrude Morgan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Gertrude Williams April 7, 1900 LaFayette, Alabama United States |
| Died | July 8, 1980 (aged 80) New Orleans, Louisiana United States |
| Resting place | Providence Memorial Park Jefferson Parish 29°58′37″N 90°13′40″W / 29.976871°N 90.227854°W |
| Style | Outsider art |
| Spouse(s) | Will Morgan (1928-?) |
Sister Gertrude Morgan (April 7, 1900 – July 8, 1980) was a self-taught African American artist, musician, poet and preacher. Born in LaFayette, Alabama, she relocated to New Orleans in 1939, where she lived and worked until her death in 1980. Sister Morgan achieved critical acclaim during her lifetime for her folk art paintings. Her work has been included in many groundbreaking exhibitions of visionary and folk art from the 1970s onwards.
Sister Morgan was born Gertrude Williams in Lafayette, Alabama, to mother Frances "Fannie" Williams and father Edward Williams. She was the seventh child of a poor rural family.
For reasons unknown, Sister Morgan left school before completing the third grade. Around 1917 her family moved to Columbus, Georgia, where she worked as a servant and nursemaid in a private home.
Gertrude Williams married Will Morgan on February 12, 1928. She lived with her husband at 1324 North Avenue in Columbus, GA. While there is no evidence of a divorce, it is known that Sister Morgan left Columbus alone in 1938, traveling first to Alabama and then to New Orleans, where she would settle.
Sister Morgan's first documented involvement with religion came in her late teens, when she joined the Rose Hill Memorial Baptist Church, a local congregation in Columbus, Georgia. After she began painting in 1956, Sister Morgan documented this time in her life in the paintings THE ROSE HILL MEMORiAL BAPTiST CHURCH, Columbus Ga. (n.d.) and Rose Hill Memorial Baptist Church (n.d.). These paintings narrate the shifts in the Rose Hill church leadership, after the death of Reverend Miller in 1930.
The first of many revelations that Gertrude was to experience came in 1934. The story of this revelation is inscribed on one of her paintings, 1324 NO AVE COLUMBUS GA. (n.d.). On it she has written, "Sitting in my Kitchen one night I heard a great strong Voice speak to me said I'll make thee as a signet for I have chosen thee I got this calling on the 30th day of Dec in 1934 I had to answere to my calling and one day give up and Pack up and go … a chosed vessel of God's its wonderful to Be. God called me a chased me and turned me into the hands of his son and JESUS said take up your cross and follow me."
In 1938 a second revelation followed, in the form of a voice that said, "Go-o-o-o-o, Preacher, tell it to the World". It was in this year that she left Columbus, first for Opelika, Alabama, then to Mobile and possibly Montgomery. She worked as a nursemaid and nanny in Opelika and Mobile, and possibly began work as a healer and street prophet during this time.
When she arrived in New Orleans in 1939, Sister Gertrude met Mother Margaret Parker and Sister Cora Williams. The two women were involved in the Holiness and Sanctified movement, an African American faith in which the activities of music, song and dance were central. The three women soon established a mission and orphanage at Mother Parker's house at 533 Flake Avenue in Lower Gentilly, then on the outskirts of New Orleans. The orphanage was funded by money raised from preaching and performing in the streets.
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