The James Madden Story

WINTER 2023-2024 • $20

By VICTOR BENNETT FORBES

PUBLISHED BY

ARTWORK © 2023 JAMES MADDEN TEXT, DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHY © SunStorm Arts Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN: 978-1-883269-14-2 for further info: 518-593-6470

SUNSTORM ARTS PUBLISHING CO., INC.

POB 481, Keene Valley, NY 12943 victor@fineartmagazine.com Jamie Ellin Forbes, Publisher Victor Bennett Forbes, Editor-in-Chief 1

FOREWORD

The Dude Abides, No Shadow

life’s works, conservatively consisting of some 300 paintings and growing in number by the day as Big Jim From Mud Dog Flat continues to produce artwork.

To visit Art Haus is to experience sensory overload.

Painting upon painting — on canvas, wood or heretofore unknown substrates — vie for one’s attention. Every wall is covered and each room has stacks of paintings seeking your attention as Big Jim moves them around for your viewing pleasure. The artist is a soft spoken man of few words but that doesn’t mean he has nothing to say. His paintings offer a deep insight and if a picture is worth a thousand words, observing one canvas is a conversation of infinite possibilities.

In his classic book, They Taught Themselves (published in 1942 and reprinted by Sanford L. Smith and Associates in 1999) famed New York gallerist/collector Sidney Janis opens a window into the first great discoveries of American self-taught painting, from Grandma Moses to Morris Hirshfield and many others. I am almost certain that Janis would include James Madden in that mix. Madden has definite opinions about art that are revealed in the very structure of his works. Every inch of every canvas is covered in oil, his medium of choice. Tubes are expensive in the North Country but that doesn’t deter Big Jim. Throughout Art Haus, paintings are drying even as brush strokes are added as is his wont. Janis states that “most self-taught artists reach full maturity with the painting of their first picture.” If that is the case, Madden hit that mark with the chain saw carving of his first bear. He was so productive he could do four a day and they would sell.

He was recently delivered a collection of totem sized tree stumps that await his attention. A huge eagle that guarded his front lawn recently found a home with a collector who happened to be driving by the Haus on his way to the Olympic Village. Madden has had no such luck with the paintings, however, and almost proudly states he has never sold a one. Yet, the level of his achievement has been and remains high and a painting-by-painting analysis of his substantial body of work attests to this. From the minimalism to the chalkboard writing of The Spirit Abides — No Shadow to the vast collection of fully formed and very large creations, one will find no white space and not a square inch of canvas that has not been covered. His meanderings become coherent expressions of indescribable joy, for the most part. Bursts of brilliant color abound as if a full glow of sunlight is bouncing off a thousand windows at the same time.

As previously stated, he’s a deep-thinking man with much to say via his art and in these pages you will learn, without the shadow of a doubt, the Dude does indeed abide.

There’s a stretch of highway, about five miles of scenic mountain bliss, that connects Keene Valley to Keene on the drive toward Lake Placid, exit 30 from the Albany to Montréal Northway. Along this route, one would hardly suspect or conjecture that contained in these few short miles, in which the year-round populace hovers near the 1,000 mark, is perhaps more art per capita than New York City, Santa Fe or any recognized art area anywhere in the world. Starting with the stalwart Corscaden Art Barn, next stop would be Old Mountain Coffee whose walls are adorned with the work of talented locals. Then there is the Keene Central School where there is always a plethora of work on display, and Nish Ka Diget studio — hidden away up on Adrians Acres — a skip and a hop back to the Library where on any given day an artist could be holding a workshop for children. Across the street is the Nature Conservancy where you can find a collection of great Patrick Kirmer renditions of Johns Brook. The Keene Valley Congregational Church has a beautiful mural in their Van Sanvoordt Room depicting the mountain scenery overlooking the Village.

On your way out of town, the Mountaineer has an ever-changing collection of art books and even the grocery and hardware store offer a selection of postcards and prints of local scenes by local artists. Not to forget The Birch Store with a broad collection to suit any home and a small gallery next to the Rooster Comb where you can find even more original art. In the summer, there are outdoor shows at Marcy Field and indoors at the Holt House where exhibitions are regularly hosted.

A short sprint to Keene, once you pass the speed trap, leads to our own version of Gallery Row, starting with Vertical Perspectives where stunning and dramatic photographs of mountains and climbers are displayed in a very cool A-frame which is a stone’s throw from Keene Arts where Malcolm and Zizi have been hosting art shows ranging from the annual High Peaks Artists to exhibitions by internationally recognized greats like Harold Weston, Rockwell Kent, the aforementioned Kirmer and Tim Fortune, among others in a clean, well lit sanctuary-like setting that was formerly a Methodist Church. A short walk down the road is the frame shop where John Hudson once held court and where you can find a neat display of suitable works. Then there is the award-winning Adirondack store, Dartbrook Rustic Goods, where the art is appropriately hung in a lodge-like setting. Even the Town Hall, across the street, has some worthy paintings but the icing on the cake, so to speak, is the Art Haus, aptly named, where the subject of this monograph set up a home gallery that is certainly worthy of a visit. Here, James Madden resides with a couple of small dogs and a collection of his

–VICTOR FORBES, Keene Valley, NY, November 2023

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Music & Art Marley to Schnabel & Many Points In-Between Upon entering Art Haus, via the bucolic grounds on the Hurricane Road side of the property, the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life lead one to a modest porch opening to a spacious kitchen adorned with what can best be termed as an introductory collection of the artist’s works, floor to ceiling, wall to wall. An interesting element is the bookcase, pictured above, where one can get a glimpse of insight into the character of the artist and some scholarly understanding of where he is coming from in the line of art history. To this viewer, it is quite fitting that Julian Schnabel’s book is first and foremost in the collection, neighbored by a tome on Jackson Pollock.

Schnabel, of course, became famous in the glory days of the Soho art scene for his broken dishes somehow affixed to hangable canvases. Highly successful he was, though often razzed by the “artworldlings,” those fractured dinnerware pieces command big bucks to this day and vaulted Schnabel into the world of film-making where he be-

came even more famous for a string of movies starting with 1996’s Basquiat. Then there is the Pollock biography and while Big Jim does not hover over his canvases dripping paint upon them, his finished pieces do owe a debt of gratitude to the “Dripper” in ways that are not readily recognizable but evident nonetheless. Each book is a revelation into the characteristics of James Madden’s body of work. You have the classics — Dubuffet, Gauguin, Monet, Soutine, van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, de Kooning, Roualt — and then there are a couple of books on the Impressionists to round out the library.

Off to the corner is a classic Fender Twin Reverb amp, not too far from a very desirable Taylor acoustic guitar.

Jim has the bases well-covered in both music and art and further into the gallery section of Art Haus, I came upon a big old Underwood typewriter from the 1920s updated with a painted tribute to Bob Marley — “One Love” — emanating from the carriage as if it was just typed.

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After many visits to Art Haus, I can safely state here that I have viewed just about each of the 300 or so paintings in his collection. Choosing 50 for this book took some doing because every time I poked around the gallery area and upstairs storage for the overflow, I found another work that just had to be included. Let me put it this way, the work featured in The James Madden Story you are now reading will have to serve as Volume I and if you do the math, there will be five more volumes to come.

To classify Madden is nigh unto impossible. There is no art “ism” that fits his work. The paintings are a combination of every school of art that came before him. One can justifiably include him in there with those Janis describes as “American Primitive…unobscured by the great terminology debates over decades of art criticism and by the canonizations

Old Mountain Coffee, Keene Valley

that have inevitably followed.” But one must also note that few if any create art akin to the work of James Madden. Therefore, I hereby create a new “ism” for those who need one: “Maddenism.” Which is to say that his paintings combine every ism that has come before him from the “Wildastic” energy of Fauvism to the delicate brush strokes of Pointillism to the indescribable elements of Surrealism with a nod to the Classicism of the Renaissance.

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So, one may ask, why then is Madden and his work dwelling in relative obscurity?

I once asked the important but relatively unknown Japanese artist Henry Fukuhara why his friend Howard Hardy was scuffling along in the art world despite being a brilliant painter. Henry answered quickly and succinctly, “Because he has nobody to champion his cause.” Which is the case with so many creatives in every field working in these or any times. While there are now popular international art fairs that feature self-taught and Outsiders, here is presented your opportunity to make a wonderful discovery of a deserving and gifted artist.

Thumbing through these pages, even the most casual observer will notice that a gargantuan amount of work goes into each and every image. Some might say

even “Superhuman.” This is probably due, notes Janis in his 1942 review of the Rev, William S. Mulholland’s classic work, Maple Sugar Making In Vermont, to the fact that Madden, like Mulholland, “follows no formal procedure of recessional space but measures his details to his own pictorial needs. The eye of artist and beholder is all that matters.” Madden has something to say and it is of importance.

To gain insight into his vision, one must understand that James has been to the other side and back. He

was stabbed in the gut while living in St. Thomas. His voyage toward Heaven was rudely interrupted and he was turned back to this earthly realm.

Who can possibly fathom what that must have been like but it does add to comprehending Madden’s vision which he translates into viable works of art. There is so much to discern, if one is interested, that knowing that part of Jim’s life story is more than relevant. The agony and the ecstasy abides within the spirit of the Dude — with no shadows to interrupt the flow.

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Interestingly and possibly unconsciously, Madden — while aware of those who have come before him — borrows little or nothing from his predecessors. Prodding the viewer experience to respond to a totally original set of artistic values, Madden creates a strange and captivating environment in which yin and yang emerge into a whorl of color, natural scenery and dare I say apocalyptic realms from the “Church of What’s Happening Now.” If this isn’t the work of a genius, a scholar of reality and a Natural Mystic, you tell me what is.

James plays no favorites with his pups Dylan and Garth and as a result, the pups play no favorites with his art. While they are incessant demanders of his attention, they will, with a certain degree of patience, pose with him for the occasional photo shoot. Here, in the gallery section of Art Haus, you can get an idea of the size and variety of his work and of the dogs.

Color, subject matter and composition somehow co-exist in a form of harmonious peace despite the action transpiring on canvas. Standing with those small canines and large works of art, Madden maintains an aura of soft pride, and rightly so. To create is one thing. To wed the creative impulse with the creative process and

come out a winner is another.

Whereas and wherefore do not seem to come into play in his milieu.

It is more like a sensitive WHAM in which all elements seemingly collide (another “ism”, Collissionism, as invented by Dimitri Semakov comes to mind) making for ample reason to be drawn to his work, especially if you consider his life after death experience. Full canvasses indicate a lust for life in which every breath is of lasting value and despite our impermanence on this plane, there is a permanence somewhere. Big Jim was there (and back) and while he doesn’t have a tee shirt to document his journey, his artwork sure does. Is he saying there is no time for room, no reason for white space or any space at all, other than 8

what is in front of him and what he has to do to redeem the bonus time he was given?

While there is a consistency of style throughout, and somewhat of a continuity with some major motifs from nature as he sees it merged into single images, all confirm, as Janis so aptly states, “the homogeneous character of the painter’s present attitude.”

Continues Janis, referring to artists unknown in general in the catalog to an exhibition called Contemporary Unknown American Painters in 1939 sponsored by the Advisory Committee of the Museum of Modern Art and shown in the Members’ Rooms of that Museum, “There is ample reason why lovers of art be drawn to their work but the audience

need not be restricted to the world of art, for the self-taught artist expresses himself with a humility and an easily comprehended human quality that may be shared by everyone. … For the psychologist there is rich material in this field, for the expression, unhampered by a complex painting culture, is so direct and close to the surface that the functioning of psychological processes in general may be readily examined. This is true, whether the expression be one of a given culture or subculture, such as Assyrian, Etruscan, Coptic or Gothic, or of individuals within a culture, as for example, Cezanne, Picasso, Duchamp or Klee, who are close to each other in the same painting stream. It is essential that this attitude be brought

to contemporary self-taught art, especially since each artist’s work may be regarded as unique and must, in the main, be evaluated individually.”

It’s a glorious atmosphere Madden has created in his North Country domicile. The interaction of a hard-working artist living with most — if not all — of his life’s work, is interesting to behold. I remember visiting the home studio of the great Pousette-Dart in Suffern, NY, where he maintained canvases from his five decades of painting, neatly stored and readily available for him to show and also add a dab of paint where he saw fit. Madden’s situation is similar — drying oil on canvas or wood indicates the constant energy of the artist.

It is a fun and fascinating experience.

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“Whatever the reasons may be, there are people in the world who always retain an untouched quality — a spiritual innocence — regardless of their experiences in life. It is a spontaneous innate uncommon sense which remains inviolate in the face of outwardly imposed tensions and restraints,” concludes Janis.

Continuing a journey through Keene toward James’s home town of Lake Placid, one is surrounded under the protection of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains yet backed up to what was a raging stream turned river that flooded the town during Hurricane Irene in 2011. In this environment one can ponder just how an artist creates his or her own world and how we observers can do the same.

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I first came upon James Madden’s work at the Old Mountain Coffee Shop in Keene Valley.

Jim caffeinates and breakfasts there regularly but he was not around the afternoon I came in and chanced upon his Homage to Picasso painting on the page opposite. At the time, I was working on a piece for Fine Art Magazine on the Rolling Stones/Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood, who was and still is a very popular visual artist. Ronnie calls this (at right) The Picasso Stones, stating “It’s my interpretation of Picasso’s painting The Three Dancers.” Jim’s Homage struck a chord with me as did his portrait above which is a strong reflection of his natural ability to slow things down and spread things out when the subject matter calls for it, better than a camera can do — a lonely figure yet complete in her solitude.

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“THIS MOUNTAIN SHALL BE REMOVED, BY MY SPIRIT SAITH THE LORD” How does one turn something intangible like faith into something actual like the tiny seed that gives birth to a massive mustard tree? “It’s not by might, it’s not by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” (Zachariah 4:6-7). Here two mountains fight for your attention. The dangerous red range and the softer blue hills in the background. Faith the size of a mustard seed is all you need.

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“Look at the sky turning hell fire red, Lord / Somebody’s house is burning, down, down, down, down………

Well, someone stepped from the crowd, he was nineteen miles high / He shouts ‘We’re tired and disgusted, so we paint red through the sky’ I said ‘The truth is straight ahead so don’t burn yourself instead / Try to learn instead of burn’, hear what I say…

So, I finally rode away but I’ll never forget that day / ’Cause when I reached the valley I looked way down cross the way A giant boat from space landed with eerie grace / And came and taken all the dead away …”

—“House Burning Down” is the 14th track on The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s final studio album, “Electric Ladyland”.

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The idyllic and the ideal merge in this mountain scene with soft and bold colors and forms. Here is a relatively subdued night scape of buildings blending into mountains under a peaceful full moon. It reminds me of the beautiful town of Zermat, Switzerland, under the protection of the Matterhorn where I spent a few days in the summer of 1971. It was a place where time stopped many years ago, though the taverns and small hotels made for a most wonderful experience as we shared our rock and roll dreams with a plate of fondue as the ever changing view of the summit of the Matterhorn split clouds over us. — VBF 27

“The Blues Is Just A Bad Dream” – James Taylor

One of my favorite James Taylor songs comes from his days with Apple Records, just before he went to the “nervous home” and wrote the song that put him over the top, Fire and Rain. It starts with a 52 second peaceful orchestral introduction (don’t forget, he was on The Beatles label) that segues straight into a three chord blues that references Madden’s painting, above.

“A tree grows in my back yard It only grows at night Its branches, they’re all twisted Its leaves are afraid of light They say them blues is just a bad dream They say it lives outside your head.........”

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James Taylor’s Apple Records album cover

“Seasons Change With The Scenery” – Paul Simon, “Hazy Shade Of Winter” 29

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Fresh and vibrant color, inventive handling of forms and surfaces and diverse compositional arrangement are so completely coordinated in this outstanding painting achievement that morphs the topography of the soothing Adirondack skyline with dangerous looking peaks of an Himalayan-type range.

The effect, when compared to the Great Range in the photograph, are further indications of the artist’s approach to landscape. The importance of form as fantasy is a hallmark of Madden’s work.

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Jim is a spiritually inclined man familiar with illuminated manuscripts and religious paintings to which he has responded keenly. The Book of James, King James version states, “Consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything… look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

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According to Sidney Janis, “The idea of compositional arrangement which involves a receding plane in the center of the picture is one often used by self-taught painters.” One of several compositions of similar nature, Madden’s love of and fascination with mountains is evident. Apparently growing out of building bocks and quasi-geometric forms in a mosaic leading to a green and blue centrally located summit backed by a great range of his own making traces of a blue sky (hope?) run off the top of the canvas. The artists’ intent and desire for a more perfect world is evident in the elements that support the tall and verdant peaks. Thematically and psychologically, the structure seems to suggest the heat of rising wrath interwoven to imply that from the craggy disorganization of the over-painted foundation, truth and beauty will win out. Reaching for the sky is one of Madden’s stylistic trademarks, and perhaps a reflection of his insights gained in that life-after-death experience. Who can really tell? Yet in the clean and open upper reaches of the painting, where commotion gives way to a tranquil but challenging “purple mountains majesty,” one can find light at the end of the tunnel.

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To me, the beauty of this painting is the simplicity of the implied message: “Jesus is the answer.” To quote Ziggy Marley here, “You can take it or leave it, you don’t have to believe it.” But how could you not when comparing this work to the vastness of Madden’s collective output? Here, above the fray, peace and serenity abide, with no shadow. The elements on the right and left of the centered calm represent the two thieves who were crucified with Christ above the raging inferno, a furnace worthy of Shadrack, Meshach and Abendago walking through the fire, with a fourth figure who could only be JAH himself letting them emerge unscathed. The primary compositional form is a perfect circle embracing a landscape with a yellow house on a hill and a moonlit sky encircled by an orange halo with another celestial figure residing under a patch of sky, seemingly at sunrise. The optimistic nature of this work is a balm for the soul calling to mind Jesus’s words to the thief who believed (“Surely you will be with me tomorrow in Paradise”) and to His Heavenly father: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Followed by Jesus crying with a loud voice, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

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Once again a form of Constructivism merges with Collisionism to create a seminal work of Maddenism in which the artist unifies elements into a quasi-coherent design that could not possibly stem from anywhere but his own imagination. Forces of nature intertwine with colored geometric patterns that verge on the phantasmagoric. On further examination, at the very summit of this masterpiece, resides a heart of blue. Not perfectly shaped, it is, nonetheless, a heart. Here, as in Taylor’s song, is it the blue of a bad dream or an optimistic positioning at the height of indescribable agony leading to higher ground? Further indicative of Madden’s mode of expression, in which every form, element and brush stroke embodies and occupies a sacred space, the unity of these disparate shapes, figures, forms and colors covering a full spectrum of light absorbed and reflected, burns at one’s very soul. As in so may of Madden’s works, there is a vision of climbing to eternity. It is a voyage not for the faint of heart, for the faithless or those concerned with or tempted to find the easy way out, for there is no marked trail here. You make your own way through Madden’s vision at your own risk. To borrow a phrase from the great Clyde Frazier, a viewer walks through a maze of discombobulation in which the final solution is a well timed behind-the-back pass to a sharp cutting guard for an easy lay-up. A two point basket on a well-practiced give and go.

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Expert at mixing oil paints, Madden’s personal relationship with them is indisputable. The lore of this painting is the beauty of the cerulean blue frame. van Gogh created his own approximation of this color by using a mixture of cobalt blue, cadmium yellow and white. In addition to van Gogh, it was popular with Monet, Paul Signac and Picasso. Says Wikipedia, “Surrounding yourself with Cerulean Blue could bring on a certain peace because it reminds you of time spent outdoors, on a beach, near the water — associations with restful, peaceful, relaxing times to create a restful hideaway.”

Cerulean Blue was quickly adopted by artists, particularly the Impressionists. A shade of blue ranging between azure and a darker sky blue, the first recorded use of it as a color name in English was in 1590.The word is derived from the Latin word caeruleus, “dark blue, blue, or blue-green”, which in turn probably derives from caerulum, diminutive of caelum, “heaven, sky.” Some sources claim that cerulean blue was first marketed in the United Kingdom in the early 1860s when it was only available as a watercolor and was not widely adopted until the 1870s when it was used in oil paint. Here Madden uses it to great advantage in surrounding his typically active environment with the inviting calm of color, Cerulean.

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