Twenty-one paintings were featured in Sideshow, an exhibition that highlighted a traditional piece of Americana – circus sideshow banners. The exhibit, co-curated by Dr. Amy Vigilante for the University of Florida’s University Gallery, included the work of legendary banner painters Fred Johnson, Snap Wyatt, Jack Cripe, Jack Sigler and Johnny Meah. 

Sideshow banners and their creators have long been excluded from discussions of art; a primary dilemma has been the inability to fit them neatly into any category of art making. Though they are, in fact, oil paintings on canvas, banners were not created to be and are not embraced as fine art, and are most often described as American self-taught or folk art. fine arts magazine 

 Their intended purpose does not give the banners any additional leverage in the art world; they were initially created for spectacle – to aggrandize the abnormality of circus sideshow performers or “freaks.” Banners were hung in long lines down the bally way leading to the entrance of the big top. “Callers” stood in front of each banner, encouraging passers-by to pay a few cents to see the world’s smallest horse, the bearded lady or lobster boy. 

Basic elements were repeated in all banners to ensure their durability and marketing appeal. Bright, flat colors or “flash,” with bold outlines were devices used to catch the viewers’ eye. The enormous scale with which each painting was rendered filled every inch of visual space around the circus and emphasized the magnitude of the “wonder” inside. Content was always shocking and exaggerated in order to excite audiences into paying to enter the secret world that existed within the sideshow. Even the signature orange border originated for a practical purpose, to disguise stains caused by the rusting iron rings situated in each corner of a banner, which were necessary to pass rope through for repeated hanging. 

 Exhibited and collected more fervently in recent years, the banners are slowly gaining credibility as aesthetic objects and as valuable ties to America’s past. In the United States, the circus has long been part of our collective memory; most adults today can recount tender yarns of childhood moments spent under the big top. However, sideshows fell out of favor and stopped touring with circuses in the late 1960s, resulting in new generations with no attachment to this history. As we move farther away from the time in which the circus with the sideshow was an annual ritual for nearly every family, historians and collectors race to document and acquire the remaining links before they are lost. 

Remnants of circus culture exist in Florida today; banners and other circus memorabilia are distributed via auctions and galleries throughout the state, but particularly in central Florida. The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota hosts the Circus Museum, a space devoted to the collection and display of circus paraphernalia such as performance props, wardrobes, rare handbills, records, and circus equipment. Also notable, Gibsonton or “Gibtown,” Florida is famed as a community for retired circus performers, though few are still alive today. 

In recognition of this precious piece of United States and Florida history, the University Gallery exhibited the majority of a collection assembled by Howard and Robin Marks. They began this collection in the mid-90s when Mr. Marks encountered two quirky banners, Queen of Tattoo and Punch and Judy, at an auction in Tampa. Owners of Gallery on First in Sanford, Florida, and collectors of American self-taught and folk art, the Marks were immediately drawn to the style and subject matter of the banners and began a search for similar paintings. Their growing collection ranges from traditional doorway banners created by widely recognized painters like Fred Johnson and Snap Wyatt, to much smaller, contemporary pieces made by commercial artists as homage to the vanishing art and specifically for the purpose of display in homes and galleries. 

 Included in their collection, are four banners by Johnny Meah, banner painter, historian, and retired circus performer. Meah grew up in Connecticut, a short distance from Coney Island, and as a child, he worked alongside his father at carnivals and circuses creating caricatures and line portraits for sale. At about the age of nine, Meah stood beneath a banner painting and was so dazzled by it that when asked by his father if he could paint something like that – Meah couldn’t open his mouth to respond. He was unable to imagine himself creating something so fantastic, yet, over sixty years later, Meah has made a life and successful career of painting sideshow banners. 

Meah’s work has been exhibited across the country in museums and galleries, and is now held in a variety of private collections. He has given lecture-performances throughout the United States and in Europe and his paintings have been featured in documentaries, monographs, films, and magazines. He has also written extensively and given countless interviews on the significance and history of banner paintings. 

The charm and intrigue of the paintings brought large volumes of visitors to the University Gallery much in the same way they previously enticed circus-goers to enter sideshows. The exhibition, Sideshow, celebrated, not only the paintings and the artists who created them, but also, the period of time when, before television and computers were mainstream, people came together to gaze with wonder on worlds so different from their own. 

by Heather A. Barrett, M.A., Contributing Writer 

Exhibition Co-Curator, Sideshow 

Visit the gallery and its collections at: www.arts.ufl.edu/galleries