{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"636"},"titlesPopular":{"label":"Title (popular)","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Gift of Warner Communications Inc."},"endDate":{"label":"End Date","value":"1985"},"sortNumber":{"label":"Sort Number","value":"1988    19    1"},"invno":{"label":"Accession number","value":"1988.19.1"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"The inspiration for this robust painting was a motor inn in Columbus that had been demolished some years earlier. Amazingly, the building\u2019s two-hundred-foot smokestack survived. William L, Hawkins highlighted it by building it out with a compound of cornmeal and paint. Situated on an otherwise flat ground, the chimney lends texture to the whole, along with an element of surprise, something the artist always sought.Like many of Hawkins\u2019s architectural paintings, Neil House with Chimney was executed in a flattened style with quick-drying enamels in a bright palette of red, yellow, and green against black and white. The stacked windows of various shapes, the stylized brick chimney, the scumbled sky, and the decorative painted frame create a certain ordered chaos\u2014the painting bursts with energy, but all is under control. As always, Hawkins\u2019s signature appears in the lower right-hand border along with the date and place of his birth\u2014\u201cBorn KY, July 27, 1895.\u201dView short documentaries about the artist at Ovation TV: http://community.ovationtv.com/_Schools-Out-Self-taught-Artists/video/516200/16878.html and Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists: http://www.foundationstaart.org/news_article.aspx?article=42\""},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Enamel and wood on Masonite"},"geographyPlaceregion":{"label":"Place/Region","value":"Columbus"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":{"mediaURL":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1947/full","mediaDepartment":"Object Photographs","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"1947"}},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Untitled"},"geographyCity":{"value":"Columbus"},"textEntriesWebsitedisplaytext":{"value":["William Hawkins\u2019 optimism and bold artistic vision infused his art with an immediacy and a rare communicative strength. Hawkins was born in 1895 on a farm near Lexington, Kentucky. In addition to farmwork, he broke his horses; in 1916, when he was a young man, he moved to Columbus, Ohio. Throughout his life, Hawkins, like other African Americans with little formal education, held blue-collar jobs, one of which was hauling salvaged materials and building supplies. He had been interested in art from childhood, but it was only after he retired that he started indulging his creativity. Encouraged to enter an art competition at the Ohio State Fair in 1982, he won a prize for his painting of the local Atlas Building; he was eighty-seven years old. He found inspiration for his images in a collection of newspaper, magazine, and book illustrations, stored in an old suitcase. He used a single stubby brush and mixed enamel directly on large plywood boards and Masonite.The inspiration for this robust painting was a motor inn in Columbus that had been demolished some years earlier. Amazingly, the building\u2019s two-hundred-foot smokestack survived. William L, Hawkins highlighted it by building it out with a compound of cornmeal and paint. Situated on an otherwise flat ground, the chimney lends texture to the whole, along with an element of surprise, something the artist always sought.Like many of Hawkins\u2019s architectural paintings, Neil House with Chimney was executed in a flattened style with quick-drying enamels in a bright palette of red, yellow, and green against black and white. The stacked windows of various shapes, the stylized brick chimney, the scumbled sky, and the decorative painted frame create a certain ordered chaos\u2014the painting bursts with energy, but all is under control. As always, Hawkins\u2019s signature appears in the lower right-hand border along with the date and place of his birth\u2014\u201cBorn KY, July 27, 1895.\u201dLee Kogan, \"Neil House with Chimney,\" in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 399.","reviewed for IMLS Neurodiversity Project by Art Bridges Fellow Austin Losada 2026","Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.　To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org"]},"bibliography":{"label":"Bibliography","value":"Treasures of Folk Art: Museum of American Folk Art"},"collections":{"label":"Collections","value":["Three Dimensional Works","Paintings"]},"titlesDescriptive":{"label":"Title (descriptive)","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"},"geography":{"label":"Geography","value":"Columbus"},"titlesFormer":{"label":"Title (former)","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"152659"},"geographyState":{"value":"Ohio"},"titlesArtists":{"label":"Title (artist's/given)","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"},"signed":{"label":"Signed","value":"lower right: ' 27 1895'lower center: 'WILLIAM. L. HAWKINS BORN KY. JULY'"},"geographyCountry":{"value":"United States"},"titlesTranslation":{"label":"Title (translated)","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"titles":{"label":"Titles","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"},"people":{"label":"Artist / Maker","value":{"displayOrder":"1","personRole":"Artist","personID":"1199","content":"William L. Hawkins"}},"classifications":{"label":"Classification(s)","value":"Paintings"},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":["William Hawkins\u2019 optimism and bold artistic vision infused his art with an immediacy and a rare communicative strength. Hawkins was born in 1895 on a farm near Lexington, Kentucky. In addition to farmwork, he broke his horses; in 1916, when he was a young man, he moved to Columbus, Ohio. Throughout his life, Hawkins, like other African Americans with little formal education, held blue-collar jobs, one of which was hauling salvaged materials and building supplies. He had been interested in art from childhood, but it was only after he retired that he started indulging his creativity. Encouraged to enter an art competition at the Ohio State Fair in 1982, he won a prize for his painting of the local Atlas Building; he was eighty-seven years old. He found inspiration for his images in a collection of newspaper, magazine, and book illustrations, stored in an old suitcase. He used a single stubby brush and mixed enamel directly on large plywood boards and Masonite.The inspiration for this robust painting was a motor inn in Columbus that had been demolished some years earlier. Amazingly, the building\u2019s two-hundred-foot smokestack survived. William L, Hawkins highlighted it by building it out with a compound of cornmeal and paint. Situated on an otherwise flat ground, the chimney lends texture to the whole, along with an element of surprise, something the artist always sought.Like many of Hawkins\u2019s architectural paintings, Neil House with Chimney was executed in a flattened style with quick-drying enamels in a bright palette of red, yellow, and green against black and white. The stacked windows of various shapes, the stylized brick chimney, the scumbled sky, and the decorative painted frame create a certain ordered chaos\u2014the painting bursts with energy, but all is under control. As always, Hawkins\u2019s signature appears in the lower right-hand border along with the date and place of his birth\u2014\u201cBorn KY, July 27, 1895.\u201dLee Kogan, \"Neil House with Chimney,\" in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 399.","reviewed for IMLS Neurodiversity Project by Art Bridges Fellow Austin Losada 2026","Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.　To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org"]},"beginDate":{"label":"Begin Date","value":"1981"},"inscribed":{"label":"Inscribed","value":"upper center: 'NEIL HOUSE / COLUMBUSLANDMARK'"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"1981\u20131985"},"exhibitions":{"label":"Exhibitions","value":[{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - Sunday, August 15, 2010","exhibitionEndISODate":"2010-08-15","exhibitionID":"188","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2009-09-01","exhibitionBeginDate":"2009","exhibitionTitle":"Perspectives: Setting the Scene in American Folk Art","exhibitionEndDate":"2010"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, January 18, 1994 - Sunday, March 6, 1994","exhibitionEndISODate":"1994-03-06","exhibitionID":"114","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1994-01-18","exhibitionBeginDate":"1994","exhibitionTitle":"World Financial Center","exhibitionEndDate":"1994"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, April 13, 1989 - Sunday, July 16, 1989","exhibitionEndISODate":"1989-07-16","exhibitionID":"7","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1989-04-13","exhibitionBeginDate":"1989","exhibitionTitle":"Expressions of A New Spirit","exhibitionEndDate":"1989"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - Sunday, September 5, 2010","exhibitionEndISODate":"2010-09-05","exhibitionID":"147","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2009-10-06","exhibitionBeginDate":"2009","exhibitionTitle":"Approaching Abstraction","exhibitionEndDate":"2010"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"1993\u20132001","exhibitionEndISODate":"2001-10","exhibitionID":"64","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1993-10-05","exhibitionBeginDate":"1993","exhibitionTitle":"America's Heritage","exhibitionEndDate":"2001"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, July 11, 2002 - Sunday, January 5, 2003","exhibitionEndISODate":"2003-01-26","exhibitionID":"73","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2002-07-11","exhibitionBeginDate":"2002","exhibitionTitle":"American Anthem","exhibitionEndDate":"2003"}]},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"72 x 48 x 3/4 \" (182.9 x 121.9 x 1.9 cm)"},"titlesInscribed":{"label":"Title (inscribed)","value":"Neil House Columbus Landmark"}}]}