Billie Hutt (American, 1927-2007). 4 colored lithographs, 1990s: "Joltin' Joe" edition 49 of 500; "B'Klyn Album" edition 31 of 500; "Miracle of Coogan's Bluff" edition 44 of 500; "Jackie Steals Home" edition 105 of 500. All with signature, title, and edition number handwritten in pencil below. Four works by self-taught folk artist Billie Hutt with lively baseball themes: "Joltin' Joe" depicts Joe Dimaggio at the plate in Yankee Stadium with the wonderful Simon and Garfunkel lyric, "Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?"; "B'klyn Album" features 9 vignettes of various Brooklyn landmarks including Ebbets Field, Coney Island, Prospect Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge; "Miracle of Coogan's Bluff" (a phrase coined by sports columnist Red Smith) paying homage to a moment of baseball lore when Bobby Thomson had the game winning home run - the famous Shot Heard 'Round the World - resulting in the Giants' victory of the 1951 National League playoffs; and "Jackie Steals Home" featuring the legendary Jackie Robinson sliding into home plate at Ebbets Field. All are mounted in attractive custom frames. Size (Coogan's Bluff): 9.3" L x 7.25" W (23.6 cm x 18.4 cm) Size (frame): 23.5" L x 19.4" W (59.7 cm x 49.3 cm) - All prints are relatively similar in size. All frames with silver finish are the same size. The wooden frame is just a tad smaller.

About the artist: Billie Hutt was a self-taught artist who began painting in a folk art style akin to Grandma Moses at age 55 when she found herself with some leftover house paint and a desire to capture her memories in her paintings. In her words, "I wanted to tell my stories to the kids - My memories. As soon as they hear 'when I was your age' they tune out, but they will look at pictures, so I show them. I paint people I knew, places I saw, things I did - A kind of visual diary." Hutt's paintings have been collected by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York, New York and the International Museum of Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Hutt graduated from Hofstra University and earned a master's degree in journalism from Carleton College. She became an editor of a small newspaper in Pottsdam, N.Y. and later joined the Air Force. Billie and her husband Ronald Labe moved to New York City in 1959 and lived on the Lower East Side. The couple was very active in Democratic politics and their circle included actor Zero Mostel, director Robert Downey Sr., actor James Earl Jones, The Mod Squad's Clarence Williams III, poet Allen Ginsberg, and radical Abbie Hoffman. Hutt organized efforts to clean up their neighborhood, working with members of the Hell's Angels. They fought for higher wages for teachers and campaigned for George McGovern.

In the 1970s, the family moved to Lake George where they became antique dealers. When they fell upon difficult financial times, Hutt began creating art using leftover house paint to make money. Eventually, they moved to Albuquerque and traveled to Santa Fe to sell Hutt's art. In 1987, they moved to Santa Fe, since Hutt's art was selling well there. Hutt's subjects included the Brooklyn Dodgers, a 1930s train trip through the segregated South, and a seven-panel work called "Exodus" that opened with the massacre of Jews in Russia.

According to Joyce Ice, director of the Museum of International Folk Art which has several works by Hutt in its collection, "She was a wonderful character. She did memory paintings -- family scenes, rites of passage -- documenting cultural traditions, and she was able to infuse Santa Fe and New Mexico, her adopted home, into that." According to gallery owner Leslie Muth,"She painted in a fanciful, simple, amusing style, and she had a great sense of humor". Muth showed Hutt's work at the Outsider Art Fair in New York for several years, and said that it resonated with people who had similar childhood memories. (Source: Billie Hutt's Obituary in "Free New Mexican")

Provenance: private Goldstein collection, Denver, Colorado, USA. The Goldstein's have amassed their collection over the past six decades.

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#177725

All prints have been mounted behind glass in custom frames. Artwork has not been examined outside the frames but appears to be in excellent condition. All have signature, title, and edition number handwritten in pencil below the image on the white matte. Frames have minor scuffs here and there but are otherwise excellent and fit with suspension hardware. All have a Billie Hutt bio and resume on verso.