Reuben Aaron Miller

Reuben Aaron Miller (July 22, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was a self-taught folk artist, best known for his whirligigs, metal cutouts and drawings. Miller began producing outsider art late in life, placing hundreds of his completed works on his property, as well as selling them on the roadside. His work gained wider recognition in the 1980s, when it was featured in a music video, and subsequently exhibited in museums of art. Widely collected, and in constant demand, Miller is acknowledged as one of the more notable senior folk artists in the United States.

Biography

Early years through retirement The youngest of eight children, Miller was born July 22, 1912, in the East Hall County community of Rabbittown, Georgia; on the outskirts of Gainesville. Six months before he was born, his father was shot and killed over a land dispute for the control of a public road. For years after, the fatherless family "got by on farming cotton, hunting and fishing". Later in life he served as an ordained minister for the Free Will Baptist Church. Miller retired at the age of 65, after his vision began to deteriorate due to glaucoma, His home was noted for being within "a stone's throw from the Rabbittown rabbit", Starting in the 1970s through the 1990s, Miller's property commanded attention in its own right, as Miller populated the landscape with hundreds of whirligigs and tin artwork, which he sold on the side of the road. Miller began receiving visitors from overseas. The exhibit, titled "Lord Love You: Works by R.A. Miller from the Mullis Collection" ran August 15 through October 24, 2009. It featured 83 paintings, drawings, sculptures and whirligigs by Miller. On July 23, 2012, an exhibit and "birthday party" was held at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center, in Gainesville, Georgia to recognize the works of R.A. Miller, and to celebrate the 100th birthday of the late artist.

Collections

Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas