Hawkins Bolden
(1914–2005)
BornMemphis, Tennessee, United States
DiedMemphis, Tennessee, United States
BiographyHawkins Bolden found on the streets of Memphis the objects—frying pans, oil-drum lids, hubcaps, shoe soles, milk bottles, scraps of carpet—to make what he called “scarecrows.” Despite their scrappy origins and rusted edges, in Bolden’s hands, these hammered assemblages took on a feeling of life, whether a can with holes punched into it for eyes, a garden hose turned into a tongue, or just a pair of overstuffed work pants. Some pieces are small and resemble masks; others are large totems of wired-together wood and metal scraps. Although some have the qualities of self-portraits, even sporting Bolden’s own clothes, they are far from figurative objects and more like strange sentinels. This effect was especially powerful when they were gathered together in the yard of Bolden’s family home.Bolden was born in 1914 in Memphis, an identical twin to his brother Monroe, and claimed African, Creole, and Native American ancestors. He dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but a childhood accident left him blind. Instead, he focused on making things, such as handmade radios, once saying, “Oh, I made kites, I made tom walkers—leg stilts—out of poles and tin cans—my daddy taught me to do a lot of them things—skate trucks. Later on, I made toys for my nieces and nephews.” It was in the mid-1960s that he started creating the guardian-like figures, explaining that a relative suggested he put them outside to keep the birds away from the garden.
Celebrated locally, his work also received attention during his lifetime from collectors and from institutions such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, which included him in the 1993 exhibition Passionate Visions of the American South. After Bolden died, in 2005, his yard art was removed and dispersed, with many pieces now held in museum collections. Although witnessing a solitary “scarecrow” cannot re-create the vision of all of them crowded along a fence and among the garden plantings, each has traces of Bolden working by touch to create something from what others discarded.
Allison C. Meier, 2025
Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).