This World is Up Side down - High Museum of Art

This World is Up Side down

Nellie Mae Rowe

American, 1900–1982

Details

Title

This World is Up Side down

Artist/Maker

Nellie Mae Rowe (American, 1900–1982)

Date

1981

Medium

Crayon and pencil on paper

Dimensions

Image/Sight: 16 x 12 inches (40.6 cm x 30.5 cm) Framed/Mounted: 25 1/4 x 21 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches (64.1 cm x 54 cm x 3.2 cm)

Credit

Gift of Judith Alexander

Accession #

2003.174

Location

Currently not on view

Image Copyright

© Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

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Drawing of a figure from the waist up, wearing a dress with green stripes and frilly collar, black marker outlining the facial features, and lead and green-colored curly hair.

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A red and blue rooster eats from a plant tended to by a humanlike figure wearing a purple dress and red boots. Above, a plant hangs from a branch that extends from the arm of a Black human-tree hybrid. Other plants and figures fill the space.

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Cursive handwriting in bright blue and lime green: “God is not dead you just do your best and he will do the rest Just try him he is all Right.”

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A cerulean human sits at the base of a tree that appears to grow up and through the body; they are surrounded by depictions of plants, animals, and two other human-plant hybrid figures against a multicolored background.

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Left: dark hand with pink fingernails and bracelets resting above orange picture frame and writing of artist’s name, numbers 4358742 and date 1971; Right: purple-pink “God is Not Dead” with a flower to the right of the word “Not.”

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A busy, colorful scene with depictions of plants and animals includes text that reads, “if you want to be seen stand up,” “if you want to be heard speak up,” “if you want to be appreciated shut up.”

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Crayon drawing of a figure with a blue neck and blue-outlined, eight-sided star (octogram), colored in orange with blue closed eyes, nose, and eyebrows and a red smiling mouth.

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A grayish woman with black hair and outlining sits disjointedly in a blue rocking chair; scalloped red and blue border

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Text reading “This World is Up Side down” is written half on a white background, half on a black background with purple and silver accents; creatures and animals of various sizes surround the text.

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