As the University Museum preps for the semester, they invite us to take a look back at one of Mississippi’s most influential artists. Despite her passing in 1977, folk artist Theora Hamblett’s work remains a vital touchstone in the state’s artistic development.
Born in Paris, Mississippi, in 1895, Hamblett composed hundreds of works, illustrating the internal, the external and the existential. These paintings highlighted her childhood memories, the greater rural Mississippi landscape and the vast wonder of her religious dreams and visions — the main subject of the museum showcase, titled: “Theora Hamblett: Holy Symbols.”
In 1954, following an accident, Hamblett broke her hip and was forced to undergo surgery, relegated to a hospital setting for many weeks. With this life-altering event serving as the catalyst, she spent the remainder of her days replicating the spiritual symbols that flooded her consciousness, prolifically churning out a varied and extensive collection of paintings, mosaics and fabric works, all of which personified her religious faith, and all of which are featured in the University Museum exhibit.
The exhibit’s curation was led by Museum Collections Project Assistant Grace Moorman, who researched and selected the works, designed the layout and installed the exhibit.
“This show was designed around the symbols that Hamblett saw in her religious dreams and visions,” Moorman said. “Along with highlighting the symbols themselves, I wanted to really show how Hamblett worked in a variety of media. She didn’t just paint. She explored different ways to portray these symbols — some of which you might recognize if you were raised in a Christian faith and others that are specific to her and interpreted by her.”
While Hamblett maintained an avid, lifelong interest in learning about the arts, her adolescent focuses were primarily her faith and teaching the gospel, among other subjects, by working as a schoolteacher in her hometown during the early 20th century. Following her mother’s passing in 1939, to whom she had become a permanent caretaker for, Hamblett migrated toward Oxford, where she simultaneously worked as a seamstress and the head of a boarding house. Through these invaluable experiences, Hamblett learned of the recently established Department of Art at the University of Mississippi, enrolling in an evening painting class, and transforming her passing interest into an evergreen vocation.
Despite her late career start, “Holy Symbols” represents the work of a seasoned prodigy. The exhibit provides a unique glimpse into the latter half of her artistic career, not only through the works themselves, but also through their explanatory supplements.
“The text that accompanies the exhibit is mostly from two places. Lucy Turnbull, a former director of the University Museum, wrote beautifully about Hamblett’s symbol work in her 1984 exhibition catalog essay ‘O Look! Heaven is Coming to Earth: Dreams and Visions of Theora Hamblett.’ Other text comes from Hamblett herself,” Moorman said.“It was very important to her that her visions not be misinterpreted, and as a result, she provided a written explanation of many of them.”
Each work feels evocative of a collective memory, often a childhood memory, as personified in “Butterfly with Exploded Wing” (1959), yet remains complex in their greater existential ties. Some works more directly represent religious iconography, such as images of the Holy Trinity, the Creator’s Star and the Greek cross. These symbols are artfully reiterated throughout the collection and despite their iconic-nature, remain highly personal to Hamblett.
When Hamblett bequeathed the “Holy Symbols” collection to the University of Mississippi, the museum not only became the recipient of the largest single collection of her work, but was also given explicit instruction that the works be given priority over all her other works in exhibition, conservation and scholarly study. Decades later, her wish has come true, as the “Holy Symbols” collection becomes available for a whole new generation to experience.
“I am just so happy to have been able to facilitate this iteration of our permanent Theora Hamblett exhibition and to be able to continue to share her wide variety of work with the public” Moorman said.
“Theora Hamblett: Holy Symbols” is on view at the University Museum this spring. Additional information on the artist and exhibit can be found on the University Museum website.
