Novelist, brief story author, and avian aficionado Flannery O’Connor has gained a brand new diploma of complexity after dozens of work and different illustrations attributed to her had been found in 2023. In celebration of what would have been her hundredth birthday, O’Connor’s alma mater Georgia School and State College (GCSU) in her hometown of Milledgeville presents 70 of her recovered artworks, rounding out an already influential literary legacy.
“Most people know who Flannery O’Connor was; now they know that she was also a painter,” Seth Walker, vp of College Development and a key organizer of O’Connor’s centennial occasion, mentioned in a press release to Hyperallergic. “Studying her visual art adds a whole new dimension to her writing.”
The invention of dozens of work, illustrations, and block prints by O’Connor that had been squirreled away by household and pals got here to gentle in 2023, shedding gentle on an artwork apply hidden from public view. Oil work on wooden tile, wood-burned illustrations, and even a self-portrait deliver each readability and mystique to O’Connor’s legacy. Her paintings was reportedly hidden by her family members out of worry that it might intervene with recognition for her achievements as a author.
An early evocation of O’Connor’s Southern Gothic writing model, this portray was reportedly accomplished earlier than she attended faculty.
Described as a savant of Southern Gothic literature, O’Connor is greatest recognized for eerie brief tales like “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1952) that degree with a handful of novels together with Clever Blood (1952), all coping with Christianity, incapacity, race, morality and ethics, crime, and and the Civil Warfare, amongst different associated themes. Born on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia, O’Connor moved to her mom’s household residence in Milledgeville in 1940, shortly after her father was identified with lupus. Now generally known as Andalusia Farm, the house is now a Nationwide Historic Landmark owned and stewarded by the college.
Two work by O’Connor over wood-burned illustrations that nod to her cartooning previous
On March 25, the gathering of 70 artworks was reunited and displayed in full for the primary time at GSCU earlier than it moved to the Andalusia Interpretive Middle, which is operated by the college. The exhibition, titled Hidden Treasures and on view by way of early 2026, consists of O’Connor’s paintings and different private objects and artifacts that haven’t been proven to the general public earlier than.
In 2020, conversations about O’Connor’s legacy arose as regards to her personal versus public attitudes towards Black individuals and the Civil Rights motion in addition to her flippant use of the N-word in letters. Now, two recovered portrait work that includes a Black lady and a younger Black lady as topics add one other layer to the dialog that has but to be interpreted. Along with developments concerning this dialogue, Hidden Treasures consists of O’Connor’s capturing of her rural environment and Southern structure with an impressionistic aptitude, work of her birds and different livestock, nonetheless lifes, charmingly gawky portraiture, and even a self-portrait.
O’Connor often dabbled in observational portraiture.
“Hundreds of people came to see the paintings in Milledgeville,” O’Gorman continued. “I fully expect that conversations about them will be occurring at scholarly conferences on O’Connor’s work in the United States and in Europe during this centennial year.”
“At the same time, they are clearly attracting the attention of a broader audience, one that goes well beyond the scholarly community,” she mentioned.
Flannery O’Connor’s portray of a church with proof of Cubist affect
Flannery O’Connor’s impasto nonetheless lifetime of flowers
Chickens, roosters, and cows out in fields, all lovingly rendered by Flannery O’Connor and displayed in Hidden Treasures.
