Creation Rebel

Isabella Ducrot

Sister Gertrude Morgan, 1900 - 1980, Lafayette, Alabama

Sister Gertrude Morgan was a preacher, artist and musician who lived and worked in New Orleans, a city she referred to as the “headquarters of sin.” Morgan moved to New Orleans in 1939 and quickly established an orphanage with two missionaries, Mother Margaret Parker and Sister Cora Williams, who were both members of the Holiness and Sanctified Movement, an African American denomination known for its syncopated gospel music and expressive forms of worship.

In the mid-1950s, Morgan began painting scenes that were “guided by God” and served as visual aids to accompany her preaching and singing. Morgan painted on doors, Styrofoam food trays, detergent boxes, paper, window shades, and toilet paper rolls using the simplest of materials: tempera or acrylic paint, pencil, pens and crayons. Morgan’s brightly colored paintings generally depict scenes from the Bible and are accompanied by the artist’s own hand-written explanations. Her best known works show visions of the New Jerusalem, scenes from the Book of Revelation, and Jesus Christ piloting an airplane.

In 1957, Morgan proclaimed herself to be the “Bride of Christ,” thereafter dressing exclusively in a white habit that often appears in her paintings. That same year, Morgan moved out of the orphanage and into a house in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, also painted white, where she established the Everlasting Gospel Mission. From her home, Morgan hosted music-driven worship services and prayer meetings for two decades. She also used the small house as a studio space.

In 1974, Morgan announced that the Lord had commanded that she stop painting so that she could focus on her preaching, and she obeyed, creating only a handful of works from that time until her death in 1980.

Mandy El-Sayegh

Burning Square (Ai Weiwei), 2024

Oil and acrylic on linen with collaged and silkscreened elements, joss paper and gold leaf