The Visual Artist Flannery
The Visual Artist Flannery
Published
by
GEORGIA COLLEGE & STATE UNIVERSITY
Newly discovered paintings and artifacts by Flannery O’Connor exhibited in March 2025 at her alma mater – Georgia College & State University, in Milledgeville, Georgia –as well as at Andalusia, the nearby farm where she wrote her most notable works.
GEORGIA COLLEGE & STATE UNIVERSITY
231 West Hancock St. Milledgeville, GA 31061
Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Flannery The Visual Artist,” organized by Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, Georgia from March 24-29, 2025
Copyright © 2025 by Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, GA
ISBN: 979-8-218-64207-5
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Designed and printed by GCSU Creative Services, a unit of GCSU University Communications.
About the Art Descriptions: These descriptions were created by the Andalusia Interpretive Center staff and are not titles originated by Flannery O’Connor. They are intended to be identifiers and not official titles of the art.
First Edition
Introduction
Never before viewed in its entirety by the public, this collection presents the visual art of Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). In the 61 years since O’Connor’s untimely death, her reputation as one of the top voices in American literature has grown into what some would call a cult following. Readers find in her written works an acerbic wit, a sharp eye for the idiosyncrasies of southern life and the rich language of her homeplace.
Before she wrote, she drew. O’Connor delivered cartoons and sketches to her father as a child living in Savannah, Georgia. During her time at Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College & State University), O’Connor served as the art editor for The Colonnade, the student newspaper, contributing weekly cartoons. These images poked fun at college life, the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) on campus during WWII, and the dating scene in midcentury Milledgeville. It was a degree in cartooning that drew O’Connor to the University of Iowa, where she soon switched into the creative writing program and began her literary career in earnest.
MFA in hand, O’Connor turned to the literary world of New York City and its suburbs in Connecticut, determined to stay away from the South and the stifling expectations for a woman of her status. However, she experienced her first serious flare up of systemic lupus erythematosus on the train when visiting home for the holidays in 1950, causing her to move in with family indefinitely. O’Connor relied on her mother for caregiving for the rest of her life, residing on a dairy farm north of Milledgeville for 14 years.
Scholars know this period as the most prolific of O’Connor’s life; she completed dozens of short stories, two novels, countless reviews, a great many speeches and hundreds of letters while living on the farm she called Andalusia. In recent years it has become clear that this was a prolific time for O’Connor’s visual art, as well. Many of the scenes painted by her hand feature agrarian imagery inspired by daily life on the farm. Others are almost abstract, relying on color and brushstroke to impart meaning. Much like her literary oeuvre, this artistic collection draws on the sensory details of beautiful sunsets, clanging dinner bells and dark tree lines.
GCSU is proud to steward this collection in its dedication to preserving the legacy of the university’s most famous alumna. With the unique combination of O’Connor’s house museum, the manuscripts in Special Collections, the Flannery O’Connor Review and the forthcoming preservation of the Cline Mansion, GCSU’s commitment to O’Connor upholds the Distinguish pillar in the university’s Imagine 2030 Strategic Plan. Georgia College & State University is proud to present this collection in celebration of Flannery O’Connor’s 100th birthday.
Unveiled Grace
- OIL PAINTINGS -
Portrait of an Unidentified Woman
Dimensions: 16” x 20”
Materials: Oil on Canvas Board
Date: 1951-1964