Collection

Sharing the lessons of self-taught art

About the Collection

Intuit Art Museum has a growing collection of work by self-taught artists, spanning the late 19^th century to the present. Highlights include paintings by William Hawkins, Howard Finster and Minnie Evans; sculpture by Georgia Blizzard, Kevin Sampson and Dr. Charles Smith; gelatin silver prints by Eugene Von Bruenchenhein; and a sizable collection of works on paper by artists James Castle, Thornton Dial, Sr., Hiroyuki Doi, Martín Ramírez, Nellie Mae Rowe, Scottie Wilson, Purvis Young and more.

As Chicago is known for its abundance of recognized self-taught artists, IAM has a focus on artists who were, or are, practicing in Chicago, including Lee Godie, Mr. Imagination, Aldobrando “Aldo” Piacenza, Roman Villarreal, Derek Webster and Wesley Willis, among others.

The IAM Henry Darger room collection includes more than 1,600 objects from the home studio of the world-renowned Chicago artist, including art supplies, smaller works (collages, tracings, hand drawn maps), personal items, furniture, scrapbooks, source imagery and materials, and small portions of writings.