William Joshua Blackmon

Materials and themes

Blackmon created large handwritten signs which he displayed to warn society of the consequences of sinning. Using house paint, he increasingly embellished his signs with imagery including biblical scenes and symbols of deliverance and retribution, along with visual commentary on social marginalization. Over time his signs became more focused on imagery than words, with words still being an integral part but usually confined to a border.

Exhibitions and collections In 1999, the Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, organized the solo exhibition Signs of Inspiration : The Art of Prophet William J. Blackmon, the artist's first museum retrospective. The exhibition was curated Jeffrey R. Hayes and included representative works from all periods of his career with all of the works coming from Paul and Jeanne Phelps' collection of Blackmon's paintings. Blackmon worked with the organizers and catalogue authors. The exhibition traveled to three additional venues; the Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Brauer Museum of Art in Valparaiso, Indiana.

In 2007, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Union Art Gallery hosted Meditations & Revelations: The Work of Lauren Grossman & Prophet William Blackmon, an exhibition of Blackmon's work intermingled with pieces by Seattle-based artist Lauren Grossman, whose work addresses the "meanings of Judeo/Christian imagery in contemporary culture". The show included a screening of the documentary God's Spaceship: A Conversation with Prophet William Blackmon.

Blackmon's paintings are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, and the Milwaukee Art Museum.