University of Mississippi Museum

Housed on the edge of the University of Mississippi’s campus, the UM Museum houses a wide variety of collections including Scientific Instruments, Greek and Roman Antiquities, American Art, and Folk Art. Within these collections are six M.B. Mayfield paintings made in the 1980s, showcasing works from the later years of his life.

After Mayfield’s time working as a janitor for the University and listening in on art lectures, he participated in exhibitions at the University as well as the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee in the nineteen-eighties. It was through the support of Stuart Purser, students, and even William Faulkner that Mayfield was able to grow in his career of painting that allowed him to participate in these exhibitions. The paintings housed at the Museum encompass some of Mayfield’s later works, allowing viewer’s the ability to see how his style and technique have changed over his career as a painter. Mayfield painted scenes from his own life, especially memories of his childhood, as well as portraits of people who were famous during his lifetime.

One of the first paintings, “Now I Lay Me Down,” depicts three boys kneeling beside a bed, while the mother depicted in the portrait holds a quilt after warming it by a fire. According to Mayfield, it is one of his favorite paintings as it depicts himself, his twin, and younger brother along with their mother, recapturing a memory of nightly prayers before bed. Another painting titled “Aunt Ella Quilting” is set in the same room as the previous, this time showing Black woman working on a multi-colored quilt in a cabin, possibly another memory from Mayfield’s childhood. He also depicts various moments of tragedies in his life through his paintings, including “One Gray December Day”, which depicts his father’s funeral procession, and “Tragic Sunday- Summer of 1932”, which shows the death of his cousin, Nelly Johnson, who was struck by lightning. The last two paintings are portraits, one being of Martin Luther King and the other of Michael Jackson, two famous figures who undoubtedly had an impact on Mayfield’s life as he felt the need to paint them. Although not currently on display at the Museum, Mayfield’s paintings are a vital contribution to local folk art collection and highlight his connection with the University of Mississippi and Oxford.

Entry by Sara Grevy and Josh Cielencki

Person Record, The University of Mississippi Museum. Accessed April 26th 2022. https://ummuseum.catalogaccess.com/people/684.

The University of Mississippi Museum. Accessed April 26th 2022. https://museum.olemiss.edu.