In the fall of 2020, Atlanta artist, writer, cartoonist, and musician Tom Ferguson gifted the Albany Museum of Art more than 250 artworks from his personal collection.
A selection of those works, now part of the AMA permanent collection, went on exhibition in January in the Hodges Gallery. The show opened a few weeks before Ferguson passed away at age 76.
Selected works by Tom Ferguson showed in the Hodges Gallery through April 30, 2021.
“We were greatly saddened by the passing of our friend, artist Tom Ferguson, who first showed at the Albany Museum of Art in the early 1980s,” AMA Executive Director Andrew J. Wulf, Ph.D., said. “From the 1970s until 2010 when he retired from painting, Ferguson evolved as a dedicated artist with a singular vision. He was an idealist who championed creativity and promoted peace through all of his work.”
Wulf said Ferguson’s work “serves as an exemplar of High Modernism, from his expressive impasto technique to his delicate pictographs, revealing an authentic and visionary style all his own. The AMA is honored to have in its collection numerous works from throughout the career of this important artist.”
Born in 1944 in Marquette, Mich., Ferguson studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wis. He received his B.S. from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, and his M.F.A. from Michigan State University.
In a November 2020 video interview with Wulf, the artist reflected on what he learned over his lifetime. Referring to spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, Ferguson said that “we intuit this relationship with what he would call, I guess, evolutionary intelligence, and we’re diverted from that by ego and his idea of ‘pain body.’ Preoccupation with mind chatter blocks us from being present, and present is our portal to connecting with that intelligence. That seems to be the most important thing I’ve learned.”
Ferguson taught art at Spelman College in Atlanta, the Atlanta College of Art, the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, and Northern Michigan University. His work can be found at the High Museum of Art; the Institute of Art, Augusta, Ga.; the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Ga., and other institutional and private collections.
