Bess Phipps Dawson was a painter and educator best known as an early proponent of nonrepresentational art in the American South. A native of rural Tchula, Mississippi, Dawson began making art as a child after receiving a painting set. At Southwest Junior College, Summit, Mississippi, she studied painting under abstract expressionist Roy Schultz, whose encouragement of experimentation proved critical to the development of her style. “Roy encouraged us to experiment,” she recalled. “It wasn’t long before we had abandoned magnolias and shacks. We were doing daring new pieces and expressing ourselves for the first time in our lives.”
