The American Folk Art Museum’s Legacy Society honors friends of the Museum who have pledged to include AFAM in their estate plans. Throughout our 60th anniversary year, we’ll share Legacy Society stories about why devoted friends of the Museum have made a commitment to its future. To learn more, please contact Karley Klopfenstein, Deputy Director and Chief Development Officer.
One of the Society’s newest members is collector Richard Gasperi of New Orleans, Louisiana. For over four decades, Richard has been associated with excellence in the field of collecting self-taught art. He opened Gasperi Gallery in New Orleans in 1980. Training his eye on artists of the American South, Gasperi’s work was informed by a keen ability to personally engage with key artists such as Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Howard Finster, and David Butler.
Gasperi’s connections to New York fed his understanding of what was happening elsewhere in the country. He made several trips to the city at the invitation of friends like AFAM Co-Founder Herbert Hemphill, and Bob Bishop, Director from 1977 to 1991. His visits to New York were often timed with art-fairs, which allowed Gasperi to make connections between his gallery and the larger field of self-taught art enthusiasts around the world. In time, his gallery became a Southern focal point for devotees of the art of Sam Doyle, Clementine Hunter, Charles Hutson, Pappy Kitchens, Lanier Meaders, Sister Gertrude Morgan, B.F. Perkins, W.C. Rice, Royal Robertson, and countless others. Commented Gasperi: “The Northern galleries collected but no one here was really showing people like (Jimmy Lee) Sudduth and Nellie Mae Rowe.”
When asked why he has opted to give his collection and estate to the American Folk Art Museum, Gasperi said: “My connections with the Museum date back several decades and I have continued to be inspired by its leadership. I really think AFAM is the perfect place for it and I want to help the Museum ensure its standard of excellence for future generations.”
In honor of his long standing relationship to the American Folk Art Museum, and AFAM’s 60th anniversary, Richard has made an immediate gift of a work of art by Howard Finster, which was given to him by Bob Bishop. The Museum has also been gifted Gasperi’s archive.
About The Richard Gasperi Collection
Consisting of more than 500 objects, the Gasperi Collection includes objects ranging from Native American basketry and Tramp Art furniture to icons of self-taught art such as ZB Armstrong, Eddie Arning, David Butler, Sam Doyle, Howard Finster, Clementine Hunter, Charles Hutson, Pappy Kitchens, Lanier Meaders, Sister Gertrude Morgan, B.F. Perkins, W.C. Rice, Royal Robertson, Nellie Mae Rowe, Earl Wayne Simmons, Mary T. Smith, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James “Son” Thomas, Mose Tolliver, and Luster Willis.