?To Paint, the Lord gives a vision, a sight that you goes by?.?
- Amos Ferguson

NASSAU, Bahamas -- On the morning of October 19, 2009, Bahamian Artist and National Monument Amos Ferguson went home to be with the Lord he had spoken to and communicated with through his paintings for the past fifty years.

Amos Ferguson was born in 1920 in Exuma. He received his primary school education at Roker?s Point School in Exuma. Ferguson came to Nassau in 1937 to learn a trade. He dabbled in various enterprises such as upholstery and furniture finishing. Finally he went into house painting and began painting on cardboard, drinking glasses and whatever he could find after receiving divine instruction. He first sold his works in the Straw Market but soon made his home on Exuma Street (now Amos Ferguson Street) his studio.

Possessed by the vision of God, almost every square inch of the house has been touched by Ferguson?s brush. He literally lived in his work. Ferguson is completely self-taught, yet it has taken him some years to receive the respect and recognition he so richly deserves in The Bahamas. He once lamented, ?I?m known all over the world. The Queen of England owns one of my paintings and Rajiv Gandhi bought one when he came to The Bahamas in 1985, but the Bahamian people hardly know I exist and don?t seem to notice my work.? (Tribune 8.3.91)

Since that time Ferguson has become the country?s best-known ?intuitive? artist. His distinctive signature ?Paint by Amos Ferguson? was also the title of a successful one-man exhibition held in 1985 at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Connecticut. The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas acquired over twenty of his works shortly after opening in 2003. Formerly exhibited at the Pompey Museum, they now represent a major holding in the National Collection of The Bahamas.


The Board, Staff and Members of The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas extend their deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the late Amos Ferguson. He was a spirited man, a visionary artist and a Bahamian treasure. May his soul rest in peace and may his art be a living epistle to his faith and work.

Photo: Amos Ferguson (left) with Robert Farris Thompson, Professor Emeritus of Art, Yale University. December 2007. (Photograph by Erica M. James, PhD)