The current “Folk and Outsider Art Exhibit” at the Bascom-Louise Gallery in Highlands may well be the most comprehensive exhibit of its kind in the Southeastern United States. The names of the artists reads like a “Who’s Who” of American folk art: Mose Tolliver, Sam Doyle, Jimmy Lee Suddeth, Howard Finster, R.A. Miller, James Harold Jennings, Eddie Owens Martin and Georgia Blizzard — artists who have permanent exhibits in major art museums throughout this country. In addition, the writer, poet and collector Jonathan Williams, one of the leading authorities on folk and outsider art, personally purchased each remarkable work.

Last week, Williams sat in the Highlands Gallery for almost two hours and talked about his collection. Surrounded by more than 40 years of acquisitions (over 70 pieces), Williams told delightful anecdotes about his trips to places with names like Hot Coffee, Bewelcome, Toomsuba, Panther Burn and Buena Vista where he encountered folks like David Butler, Charlie Lucas and Artemis Rat Okra. As Williams talked, he occasionally stopped to read selections from a dozen books (most published by his own Jargon Society Press) that contained interviews with these remarkable artists. Resting on the table before him was one of his prize possessions – four carved figures labeled “Mr. and Mrs. Devil and Their Children,” by Carl McKenzie.

When asked if the value of the collection had significantly increased in the last 40 years, Williams smiled and pointed a wooden assemblage titled “Garden of Eden” by Rev. Russell Gillespie. “I bought that for $100,” he said. “Now, when it travels to Boston or New York, it is insured for $20,000.”

He acknowledged that a major theme in folk art is religion. When asked what made a folk art item valuable, Williams explained his sole criteria for purchasing a piece — did he want to see it hanging on his wall at home? “In my early years, I kept company with artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Josef Albers. I wouldn’t want either of them hanging on my wall. I had rather have a Bill Traylor or a Sam Doyle.”

The diversity of Williams’ collection is impressive. Artistic mediums range from notebook paper, pasteboard, sheet tin and painted concrete to mud, canvas, gourds, fiber and paper mache. It is also surprising to note that although the majority of the exhibit originates in the rural South, there are some notable exceptions. The noted poet and illustrator, Kenneth Patchen is represented as is Enid Foster from Sausalito, California. There are also two pieces by Bill Anthony, who hails from Greenwich Village, N. Y.

In a forthcoming book, Walks to the Paradise Garden, Williams intends to deal with the profusion and diversity of folk art in the rural South. Much of the proposed art will reflect the South’s preoccupation with God and the Devil, which Williams feels is often one and the same.

He agrees with Tom Waits, the musician, who notes that “The Devil’s just God when He’s drunk.”

The Folk and Outsider Art Collection of Jonathan Williams will remain at the Bascom-Louise Gallery through June 17. Additional information may be acquired by calling 828.526.4949. The Gallery’s e-mail address is bascomlouise@earthlink.net.