Kurt Bosecke Obsessive visionary Story by Petra de Mooy. Photography by Emmaline Zanelli.
Above: Kurt working on his floor-to-ceiling mural installation, complete with a papier mâché stegosaurus at Arthur Arthouse, 2020. Page right: Kurt’s large scale canvas depicting a kaleidoscopic bird composition installed at ACE Open for ‘If The Future Is To Be Worth Anything’, was included in an exhibition showcasing a selection of significant emerging South Australian artists.
In the world of art there are distinctions made between artists who undergo a rigorous post-secondary education and those who are self-taught or ‘naive’. These outsider artists operate on the outer fringes of the mainstream, unschooled. Their ranks include artists like Henry Darger or Madge Gill who worked in isolation, reclusively making art that was discovered posthumously, only to be heralded as brilliant and even genius. Closer to the mainstream there are folk artists making products or creating environments as a pastime who are eventually recognised and collected and exhibited as high value artworks. It’s a mode of creating that, in some ways, suits twenty-four-yearold Kurt Bosecke. But I see him as more of an insider, an obsessive 54
visionary, and though definitely not mainstream, he has a growing legion of fans both in and outside the local art scene. Kurt began making art at a very young age and he may be one of the most prolific artists I’ve ever met. Encouraged by his parents, Brian and Carrie, he’s eagerly consumed a steady supply of art supplies, drawing and painting most days for at least a couple of hours, and some days many more. It keeps him busy but it also forms the foundation of the community around him and his support network. Though his father Brian tells me he would create the artwork regardless: ‘It would just pile up in a corner,’ he says. The day I meet Kurt, he’s working at artist Henry Jock Walker’s Seaford studio. Henry is one of Kurt’s mentors and they meet most Wednesdays, with Henry seeing his role simply as offering encouragement and guidance to Kurt to open up different artistic frameworks. Henry and many other mentors along the way have helped Kurt find a place among other makers. As they work >
