FLORIDA HIGHWAYMEN PAINTERS

The Florida Highwaymen are a group of 26 African-American landscape artists (25 men and 1 woman) from the Fort Pierce, Florida area who painted brilliantly colored landscapes from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. Early on, unknown African-American artists were excluded from the traditional world of art shows and galleries. Although facing racial and cultural barriers in the "Jim Crow" South, they rose above those attitudes. Art was a craft and a way to earn a living.

EMMETT FRITZ & ST. AUGUSTINE'S "LOST COLONY" ARTISTS

Between the 1930s and the early 1950s the historic city of St. Augustine, Florida developed into the largest art colony in the South. A small group of dedicated professional and amateur resident artists, known as the "Lost Colony," established the St. Augustine Arts Club in 1931. Later named the St. Augustine Art Association in 1948, these artists were supported by St. Augustine's businessmen and retail merchants who recognized that Fine Art had the potential to contribute to the city's economic revival. One of their preeminent member artists was Emmett Fritz, St. Augustine's most collected artist, thought to have painted 10,000 paintings during his career.