Vernon Burwell

Vernon Burwell (1916–1990) was an African-American sculptor known for his painted cement sculptures of animals and busts of historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Life and career Burwell was born on April 28, 1916, in North Carolina into a sharecropping family. His parents died when he was thirteen and he was subsequently cared for by seven other farming families. At age sixteen, he joined the Missionary Baptist church, where he later became a deacon. At age 26, in 1942, he married and began working for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He was promoted to master mechanic and repaired diesel locomotives for the rest of his career.

After 33 years of service to the railroad industry, Burwell retired in 1975 on disability due to diabetes-related eyesight deterioration. He began making cement sculptures within a year of retirement. When he first began sculpting, he painted his sculptures in vivid, life-like renderings using automobile paint. As his eye-sight worsened, he covered his sculptures in monochrome gold spray paint. A cataracts surgery eventually restored his vision. Signs and Wonders: Outsider Art Inside North Carolina. 1989, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC. High Museum of Art John Michael Kohler Arts Center Milwaukee Art Museum