Joe Sylvester Casey

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My Hide Away
My Hide Away

Joseph Sylvester Casey
(1900-1987)
South Bend IN

Unknown as a painter to his community for most of his life, Joseph Sylvester Casey filled his home with images of childhood memories and scenic landscapes. Casey was born in Blackwell, Missouri in 1900. He moved to South Bend in 1921 and worked at Studebaker and Bendix plants until retirement. During the cold and snowy winter months, Casey focused on his paintings of idyllic, rural Missouri farm scenes and wooded fishing spots. Common images in his landscapes are quaint cottages, majestic mountains, waterfalls, and solitary individuals fishing. In the paintings of this African-American artist, the fishermen were always white, an ironic element present in personal scenes such as My Hide Away.

Through these works Casey transcended the industrialized city in which he lived. White fishermen illustrated his struggle to identify with leisure activities frequently associated with white affluence. Entirely self-taught, Joseph Sylvester Casey was adept at watercolor and acrylic painting. His work was first shown to the public in 1991 at the Colfax Cultural Center, South Bend Indiana, through the efforts of his close friend, Jake Webster. Webster, another South Bend artist, was a friend of Mr. Casey's for six years before he learned of Joe's artistic talents. *

Joe Casey's work is represented by Artpost Gallery, 216 W. Madison St., South Bend IN 46601

Exhibits

2008 Outsiders Outside Art Fair, Judith Racht Gallery, Harbert MI

2007 Annual African-American Arts Association Invitational, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend IN

1996 The Intuitive Edge: Midwest Folk & Outsider Art, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend IN

1991 Joe Casey, Colfax Cultural Center, South Bend IN


* The Intuitive Edge: Midwest Folk & Outsider Art , exhibit catalog, published by the South Bend Regional Museum of Art, 1996

216 W. Madison St. • South Bend IN 46601 • 574-287-6293 •