NCWC News: Robert Lynch Art Collection At North Carolina Wesleyan College Four Sisters Gallery

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February 5, 2004

Robert Lynch Art Collection At North Carolina Wesleyan College

Four Sisters Gallery

Rocky Mount, N.C.—Sixty two selected sculptures, drawings, and paintings from the internationally recognized Robert Lynch Collection of Outsider Art are on view in the Four Sisters Gallery on the North Carolina Wesleyan College campus through October 2. The Lynch Collection is the centerpiece of the gallery’s permanent collection of self-taught and visionary contemporary folk art from the Coastal Plain.

The late Robert Lynch was a Harvard University educated attorney from Enfield, NC. Originally poor sharecroppers in the 40’s and 50’s, the Lynch family was rich in work ethic and education. They made sure all five children, including Robert, were college educated professionals. Although Lynch practiced law on Wall Street in New York City, he came home often during the 80’s. More and more he took notice of the resourceful determination of the unschooled artists and visionaries from his home place, many of whom were as poor as his family had been. Most of these artists made things "to keep busy" or to "tell a story" and did what they did without knowledge of modern art or their "outsider" status. Lynch befriended these artists and collected many examples of carved wooden statues, curious religious pictures, and cement animals. He sold his collection to North Carolina Wesleyan College in 1987.

The Lynch Collection has been featured in art books and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Wesleyan has loaned sculptures, furniture, and paintings to the North Carolina Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of American Folk Art, just to name a few of the many important venues where it has been seen.

The exhibit will continue through October 2, 2004. Gallery hours are 9-5 Monday through Friday, and 9 – noon Saturdays. Additional information and tours can be arranged by phoning 252-985-5268; contact Curator/Gallery Director Everett Adelman.

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