mr. eddy lives! - American Visionary Art Museum

800 KEY HWY • BALTIMORE, MD • 21230 • USA • 410.244.1900 • AVAM.ORG
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2015 (updated 4/3/15)
MR. EDDY LIVES!
New exhibit at AVAM will feature Florida outsider artist’s vibrant, colorful paintings
April 11, 2015 – April 2016
BALTIMORE, MD—The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) presents Mr. Eddy Lives!, featuring 109
paintings and portraits by the late Florida outsider artist Eddy Mumma (aka Mr. Eddy), a recluse and double
amputee whose solace and delight was in the production of explosively joyful paintings. The largest and most
comprehensive exhibition of Mr. Eddy’s work to date, this voluminous yearlong show opens April 11, 2015 in
the 3rd floor gallery of AVAM’s Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building.
Eddy Gallimore Mumma was born July 14, 1908 in Milton, Ohio to devoted Christian Scientist parents. Tall
and powerfully built, Eddy marries Thelma Louise Huebner in 1936, settling near Springfield, Ohio. Two years
later their only child is born, a daughter they name Carroll Lee Mumma. The young Mumma family purchases
a modest farm and then a larger one, sharing the property with Thelma’s mother, Stella, and a few renters for
extra income. In 1956, Eddy loses his wife to breast cancer. She is only 44 years old, and Eddy drinks heavily
to ease his sadness. He moves to Gainesville, Florida in 1967 to be near his daughter and her family. Diabetes
costs Eddy the loss of one leg, and eventually the other. Cataracts lead him to the brink of blindness, but eye
surgery greatly restores his sight.
In early 1969, Carroll suggests that Eddy, now 60, try a painting class. He does, gets insulted by criticism
from the instructor on the first day, and walks out never to return. He takes home the paints and is hooked.
Eddy’s painting begins filling more and more of his tiny home, spilling over to cover even the surfaces of his
radiator, kitchen cabinets, stove, and refrigerator. His son-in-law and two grandchildren bring art supplies and
ask that he use both sides of the canvases, because he runs through them so quickly. Art professor, bohemian
musician, and big-hearted force of nature, Lennie Kesl, becomes Eddy’s close friend and ardent admirer at a
time when Eddy is increasingly reclusive, self-conscious about losing his legs, and uninterested in interrupting
his private inner world filled with art production. Kesl also brings art supplies to Eddy, who is adamant he has
no interest in any public showing or commercial sale of his art. Lennie is convinced Mumma is a true genius
and shares a few paintings Eddy gifted him with Josh Feldstein, his close friend. Feldstein is immediately
smitten.
MORE
PRESS RELEASE: Mr. Eddy Lives! exhibition at AVAM
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At Mr. Eddy’s death in 1986, Feldstein happens to pass by Mr. Eddy’s home as the family is clearing out
years of clutter. He acquires a great trove of paintings directly from Mr. Eddy’s family. Many canvases are
stuck together, some are insect encrusted, and Feldstein takes on the long task of their loving conservation.
Feldstein observes, “Mr. Eddy created a wonderful world for himself that I have been lucky enough to
experience while living with these paintings for the past 30 years. The images are simple but evocative,
expressively colorful and playful, yet full of emotion.” In January of 2015, The Historic Thomas Center Galleries
of Gainesville, Florida showcased a sensational solo exhibition of Eddy Mumma’s work, curated by Anne
Gilroy, in tribute to this reclusive Gainesville treasure.
Rebecca A. Hoffberger, AVAM founder and curator of Mr. Eddy Lives! remarks: “Standing in front of Mr. Eddy’s
work and imagining him wholly engulfed in such radiantly happy colors and thick, luxuriant paint—momentarily
knowing nothing of lost limbs, hellish Florida heat, or loneliness—we are reminded what restorative, soulsaving, powers art has the grace to grant us all. Perhaps cartoonist and philosopher, Lynda Barry, put it best:
‘We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.’ ”
April 11, 2015 – April 2016 • 3rd floor gallery, Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building
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MR. EDDY LIVES!
Special Members Opening Reception
Sunday, April 12, 2015 • 5pm–8pm • lite fare & beverages
RSVP required by April 9 to Melissa Mauro:
melissa@avam.org, 410.244.1900 x238
AVAM Fan Club Members: join us for the opening of AVAM’s all
new 3rd floor exhibit: Mr. Eddy Lives!, featuring 109 paintings and
portraits by the late Florida outsider artist Eddy Mumma (aka Mr.
Eddy), a recluse and double amputee whose solace and delight
was in the production of explosively joyful paintings. Enjoy lite fare
and beverages, mix and mingle with other Fan Club Members, and
hear a special talk with curator/AVAM founder, Rebecca Hoffberger,
and Eddy Mumma expert/collector, Josh Feldstein, about this truly
one-of-a-kind visionary artist, Mr. Eddy.
Eddy Mumma
Untitled
n.d.
Collection of Josh Feldstein
Photo by Charlotte Kesl
PRESS RELEASE: Mr. Eddy Lives! exhibition at AVAM
Eddy Mumma
Untitled
n.d.
Collection of Josh Feldstein
Photo by Charlotte Kesl
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PRESS RELEASE: Mr. Eddy Lives! exhibition at AVAM
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ABOUT AVAM:
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM (AVAM) is America’s official, national museum and education center for
self-taught, intuitive artistry. Since its opening in 1995, the museum has sought to promote the recognition of intuitive,
self-reliant, creative contribution as both an important historic and essential living piece of treasured human legacy,
and has championed creative acts of social justice as life’s highest performance art. The one-of-a-kind American
Visionary Art Museum is located on a 1.1 acre wonderland campus at 800 Key Highway, Baltimore Inner Harbor.
Three renovated, historic, industrial buildings house wonders created by farmers, housewives, mechanics, retired
folk, the disabled, the homeless, as well as the occasional neurosurgeon—all inspired by the fire within. From carved
roots to embroidered rags, tattoos to toothpicks, the visionary transforms dreams, loss, hopes, and ideals into
powerful works of art.
VISITOR INFORMATION:
AVAM is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10am—6pm. The museum is closed on Mondays*, Christmas
Day and Thanksgiving Day. AVAM is located next to historic Federal Hill park at 800 Key Highway, Baltimore
Inner Harbor, 21230. Admission prices, general museum info, directions, and parking info can be found online at
avam.org or by calling 410-244-1900. *OPEN Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with FREE admission & special
programming—AVAM’s celebration of Dr. King’s vision and all of life’s possibilities!
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:
The Visionary Experience: Saint Francis to Finster • thru August 30, 2015
American Visionary Art Museum’s 20th original exhibition champions life’s grand “Aha!” and “Eureka!” moments, held
in common by Earth’s most dynamic and intuitive “evolutionaries:” inventors, scientists, America’s founding fathers,
dreamers and saints; each touched by some lightening bolt of greater understanding, insight, grace and muse. Cocurated by acclaimed filmmaker and book publisher Jodi Wille (The Source Family, 2012), and AVAM founder and
director Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, this exhibition’s highlights include: a spirited centennial celebration of America’s
most prolific self-tutored and “on fire” artist, Rev. Howard Finster; the giant otherworldly paintings of remote viewer
Ingo Swann; a rare peek into the spiritual life of famed musician Jimi Hendrix; the cosmic works of polymath Walter
Russell; the religious experience of sci-fi icon Philip K. Dick as drawn by Robert Crumb; an exploration of inventive
new spiritual groups and their leaders: Uriel of Unarius Academy of Science, and Father Yod and The Source
Family; the wildly expansive drawings and bronze wind-bells for future ecology-based cities of Italian architect Paolo
Soleri; and many more! The Visionary Experience will guide viewers down a path ancient and modern, futuristic and
primitive, where the touch of grace, the whisper of the muse, and the still small voice beckon, offering the traveler
transportive visions: personal, cultural, and cosmic.
MORE: http://avam.org/exhibitions/the-visionary-experience.shtml
MEDIA CONTACT:
Nick Prevas: nick@avam.org, 410.244.1900 ext. 241
PRESS IMAGES: Download at http://avammedia.zenfolio.com/pressimages
email nick@avam.org for password
PROGRAMS & EVENTS CALENDAR: For a complete list of AVAM’s Programs & Events, please visit: http://avam.
org/news-and-events/calendar.shtml.
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM
800 Key Highway • Baltimore, MD 21230 • 410.244.1900 • avam.org
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