George Wardlaw’s journey from humble beginnings as a small-town farm boy in Northeast Mississippi to renowned artist can in many ways be compared to one of his paintings. When examined closely, the canvas registers a series of events. Take a step back, and those brush strokes and variations in color form a bigger picture. Just as a blank canvas in Wardlaw’s studio is destined to become a painting, Wardlaw was destined to become an artist.
Wardlaw was born a few miles outside of Baldwyn, Miss., in 1927 — one week before the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States and two years before the stock market crash that would lead to the Great Depression.
“When I was born, we were poor. We lived in six different houses before I was in high school. And when I say houses, I mean six different shacks,” he said. “This was during the height of the Depression. If everyone else is poor, there is not much to compare things to. I didn’t know any better.”
Despite the reality of the family’s poverty, Wardlaw had a happy childhood. Because the focus was on survival, there wasn’t much time or money for such things as art.
“Art doesn’t survive when survival is the issue,” he said.
However, when he wasn’t in school or working on the farm, young Wardlaw did enjoy drawing. He found a kinship in a school friend who shared his talent, and the two boys formed a healthy competition. Wardlaw’s aunt, with whom the family lived during part of his childhood, also took an interest in the budding artists’ creations. The encouragement motivated Wardlaw to continue drawing through high school.
Wardlaw left school in 1945, after his junior year, to join the Navy. Suddenly, this small-town farm boy was traveling to places about which he had only dreamed.
“I used to sit on my front porch and wonder what was out there over the hills,” he said. “After I joined the Navy, I found out there were cities and trains to take me there. It was a real eye-opener and the beginning of my disconnection to the farm.”
It feels terrific for my work to come back to my home state. I’ve waited a long time for this.
However, the break in the tie did not come immediately. After his naval discharge, just a year after leaving, he was back on the farm in Baldwyn when he ran into a friend from school.
“He asked me if I was still drawing, and I told him, ‘Yes.’ He told me, ‘George, you should go to art school’ and I asked, ‘What is art school?’”
Two years earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill, which provided college or trade school assistance to veterans. Wardlaw’s friend told him about an art school in Memphis and the Veterans’ Affairs office in Tupelo. Wardlaw immediately borrowed a car and drove to Tupelo. The VA Office contacted the Memphis Academy of Arts, which agreed to sign him up even though registration was closed for the semester.
Wardlaw met a hurdle though when he found he must have a high school diploma. In two weeks’ time he was able to secure the credits he needed and complete the admissions process. Then came the beginning of his eyes being opened.
“When I got to Memphis, the first place I went was to the registrar’s office. Directly across the hall was a wall covered in artwork,” he said. “One painting caught my eye. It was a bowl of peaches painted so realistically that I could actually touch the fuzz on the peaches with my eyes. I was so impressed.”
I remember thinking to myself, ‘Is this art?’
Realist paintings had been the dominant influence in American art before World War II. When Wardlaw entered the academy, abstract expressionism had taken America by storm. It was a movement that would influence the work of art students all over the country.
By the end of his first school year, Wardlaw’s painting Factory Buildings was included in a national traveling exhibition of artists 25 and younger and sponsored by the Jaques Seligman Gallery in New York. It was the first of many recognitions for Wardlaw, the student.
At the academy, Wardlaw also studied silversmithing and became a respected and acclaimed jewelry maker. In 1951, The U.S. State Department purchased five of his pieces to include in an exhibit that traveled around Europe and the Far East. That same year, Wardlaw graduated from the academy. He returned to Baldwyn to build a studio and planned to make a living selling paintings and making jewelry.
Little did he know, halfway across the world in Istanbul, a former instructor from the academy who had just accepted the position as chair of the art department at the University of Mississippi was viewing Wardlaw’s work as part of the traveling art exhibit. Next came an offer for Wardlaw to teach metal-smithing and jewelry-making at Ole Miss. He also became the first student to enroll in the university’s inaugural Master’s of Fine Arts program. Wardlaw said his time in Oxford was critical to his development as an artist. While there, he met and befriended two artists who would have the biggest influence on his work, abstract expressionist painter Jack Tworkov and sculptor David Smith.
After completing his MFA, Wardlaw taught at Louisiana State University and State University of New York in New Paltz. In 1963, he joined Tworkov as a professor at Yale University, where he would teach for four years. Finally, in 1968, he joined the art department at the University of Massachusetts, where he later became department chairman. He stayed at the university until his retirement in 1990. Today, the 88-year-old Wardlaw lives in Amherst, Mass., where he continues to paint regularly.
“Finding something to paint is never a problem,” he said. “I paint from my head, not from objects. I am always pulling ideas out of storage in my head. I know I will probably die before I am able to paint them all.”
Wardlaw’s art spans more than six decades and has been included in nearly 100 exhibits across the world. He has been honored with numerous accolades, including the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award, which honors Mississippi artists, musicians and writers. His works range from the bayous of Louisiana, an apple orchard in New Paltz and the Hudson River to the coast of Maine and Judy Wardlaw, his wife for more than 50 years until her death in 2008.
The Mississippi Museum of Art is currently featuring 34 of Wardlaw’s most influential pieces, including drawings, paintings and sculpture.
“Mr. Wardlaw has reached a point where we are able to look back over the entire sweep of his career,” said Dr. Roger Ward, MMA deputy director and chief curator. “Each piece was selected from each of the six decades he has worked, so that we are able to see from one stylistic trend to another. It is a rare opportunity to pay tribute to an artist who has continued to be active.”
Wardlaw visited Mississippi for the opening, a trip he hasn’t made in 20 years. “When I first started this journey, I had no idea where it was going or what the future held for me. The way my life developed without plan, everything just happened and then kept happening. I am a very fortunate person.”
STORY Lisa LaFontaine Bynum
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis
