SARASOTA, Fla. — The City of Sarasota is featuring artwork from a group of legendary landscape artists known as the Florida Highwaymen.
The City Hall Cultural Heritage Exhibit was launched in November 2022 as a way to decorate the lobby of city hall while sharing Florida's history in arts and culture.
"With regards to Black History Month, it’s an incredible story of resilience in the face of adversity, and from an artistic standpoint these artists have paintings in the Smithsonian," said Ciera Coleman, City of Sarasota Public Art Administrator.
The art exhibit located within city hall is on loan from Roger Lightle, an art collector.
The Highwaymen was a group of young painters, 25 men and one woman, who sold their artwork out of the trunks of their cars in the 1950s.
"On the road, load them up in their vehicle. The frames themselves would create a buffer between each painting, they're oil paintings so very slow drying," said Roger Lightle.
Roger Lightle is an art collector who lives in Vero Beach. He owns about 700 paintings by the Florida Highwaymen. He bought his first painting in 1999.
"The very first Highwaymen artist was Harold Newton. The second one was Roy McLendon," said Lightle.
The young painters from Florida's East Coast captured Florida's landscape. They were forced to sell paintings out of the trunk of their cars due to segregation laws.
"Anywhere or everywhere they would try to create the sale, anywhere and everywhere, doctor's offices, lawyers, dentists, real estate offices. If you had an office on US 1, which was
the main thoroughfare until 1957 in Florida, that’s the approach they had," said Lightle.
The Highwaymen exhibition was first installed at City Hall in January 2024 and was refreshed after six months. The artwork will be on display through February 2025.
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