The Tubman Museum's new exhibit, Painter/Poet: The works of Arbon Lane opens today. It features a suite of 21 paintings and poems created by North Carolina based self-taught artist, Arbon Lane (1932 – 2005).

Most of visionary artist Arbon Lane’s paintings were created with house paint on pieces of wood or roofing tin.  His art depicted his memories of rural family life. Several pieces illustrate the racial discrimination he faced and the imagined lives of his enslaved ancestors.  Although the scenes he created often depict hardship, they also show the joy in simple things and the importance of family and community.

In addition to painting, Lane also composed poems which he laboriously typed out on an old typewriter he recovered from the local dump.  Eventually the poems, which were kept in a Bible, were accidentally discovered by a folk-art dealer.  The art dealer challenged Lane to make paintings to accompany his poetry.  Lane created 21 paintings to illustrate some of his poems.  That suite of 21 paintings and poems were acquired by educator and art collector, Bob Hart.  Hart donated the poems and paintings to the Tubman Museum in 2014.

Painter/Poet: The Works of Arbon Lane is on exhibit in the BB&T Gallery on the second floor of the Tubman Museum through December 4, 2021.