Amos Ferguson

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

One morning, after waking up from a vivid and unshakeable dream, Amos Ferguson, a house painter in his 40s, decided to become an artist. In the dream Jesus emerged out of the sea holding a painting, and told Ferguson that he was wasting his talent and should become a painter. Born to a Baptist preacher in 1920 on Exuma, an island in the Bahamas, he was one of 14 children. Until that night, Ferguson had worked as an upholsterer and furniture finisher. He started painting Biblical scenes, simple familial situations and social rituals (such as the festival Junkanoo) and Bahamas-specific landscapes. In the beginning he sold his work at the Straw Market in Nassau. He used enamel paint on cardboard that his wife also used for making baskets, but he would also paint on pizza boxes, shirt cardboard, drinking glasses, or whatever was at hand. His initial attempts at making art were mostly ignored by the public, but his work gained in stature once he began exhibiting in Bahamian galleries in 1972. It was not until 1978 that he received international attention, when the American collector Sukie Miller showed Ferguson’s work to Ute Stebich, a dealer in Haitian art in Lenox, Massachusetts. Since then his work has been shown across the United States and abroad. In Family Ferguson applies paint boldly, and his brushwork is deliberate yet exuberant. His palette is joyful and bright with colours occupying distinct zones, allowing each to have its own voice. This helps his message shine clearly: the celebration of life (especially spiritual life). Five figures are placed rhythmically across the space, their bodies barely held down by gravity, floating like seaweed in water. Despite the fairly simple flat colours, there is subtlety in the facial expressions, which appear shy and solemn, with eyes fixed on something afar. In their frontal pose, and with their mysterious expressions, they seem to be keen observers or witnesses, belonging more to a mystical world of dreams than reality. Not surprisingly, Ferguson strove to “Paint by Faith, Not by Sight."