A publication of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art VOLUME 20
FALL 2015
OUTSIDER
THE
THE OUTSIDER 1
Larry John
Palsson 1948-2010
Visit us at the 2016 Outsider Art Fair New York City Booth 22 January 21-24
www.jcomptongallery.com 512.757.1535
Dwight MacKintosh Couple Watching Television Watercolor and marker on paper 30” x 22”
en te r t a in ing
Unique American Folk and Outsider Art 2346 Lillie Avenue
Susan Baerwald and Marcy Carsey PO Box 578 Summerland, CA 93067 (805) 969-7118 T
www.justfolk.com
CONTRIBUTORS Michael Bonesteel Michael is an art historian with expertise in the field of self-taught, visionary and intuitive art in America, England and Europe. He is an adjunct assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the author of numerous book, newspaper and magazine articles, and catalog essays. His book, Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings (Rizzoli International) was the first definitive publication in English on that artist. Ann Cernek A Chicago native and recent Intuit intern, Ann is a soon-to-be graduate of McGill University, majoring in English literature and minoring in art history and French literature. She plans to spend her career working in art museums. Leonard Cicero Intuit’s collection manager/registrar is also an independent curator with a passion for bridging the divide between Chicago’s cultural institutions and its underserved and underrepresented communities. Victor Espinosa One of the foremost experts on Martín Ramírez and an authority and author on transnational migration and art, Victor currently teaches sociology at the Ohio State University. He holds degrees from the University of Guadalajar and the College of Michoacan, Mexico. His fields of expertise include Latina/Latino studies, oral histories and sociological biography, ethnography and methodologies for studying culture, human rights and suffering, and artistic recognition and outsider art. Tom Patterson Tom is a writer, independent curator and author of books, the subjects of which have included visionary artists Howard Finster and Saint EOM (Eddie Owens Martin). He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Don Parker A Chicago-based freelance writer, editor and content producer, Don previously served as editor-in-chief of Chicago Wilderness magazine and as a naturalist and communications specialist with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Jane Elizabeth Ross While volunteering in the exhibitions and collections department at Intuit, Jane is pursuing a master’s degree in art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She previously studied photography at Columbia College Chicago. William Swislow An Intuit board member and frequent contributor to The Outsider, Bill is a digital business consultant and operator of the cultural web site interestingideas.com.
The Outsider 5
Intuit prepares for next quarter century
7
dRAW reveals direct expressions from a parallel art universe
BY TOM PATTERSON
BY DEBRA KERR
17 Intuit’s journey with Betty Zakoian
BY ANN CERNEK AND LEONARD CICERO
21 Hell on earth: The artist termed his work “The Richard Saholt Story”
BY MICHAEL BONESTEEL
28 Friends’ donations of artworks enhance Intuit’s collection and exhibits
BY JANE ELIZABETH ROSS
29 Intuit Takes Education Beyond the Exhibit
BY DON PARKER
30 Book reviews
Finster’s vision takes center stage in new book
Extensive research results in definitive Ramírez portrait
BY BILL SWISLOW
ISBN 978-0-9823408-4-4 The Outsider is published once a year by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, located at 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60642. Prior to Fall 1996, Volume 1, Issue 1, The Outsider was published as In’tuit. On the Front Cover: Caroline Demangel, Untitled, 2014. Mixed media on paper, 20 x 16¼ in. Cavin-Morris Gallery. On the Back Cover: Dwight Mackintosh, Untitled, 1993. Ink on paper, THE OUTSIDER 1 10½ x 15 in. Robert A. Roth Collection, Photo: Wm. H. Bengtson
SEE IN TU IT!
Long obscured by brick and glass block, Intuit has embarked on a campaign to raise its visibility. Led by the internationally acclaimed architecture firm Studio Gang, Intuit’s facade transformation will elevate the museum experience, raise its accessibility and increase awareness of contemporary self-taught art in Chicago and beyond. ABOUT INTUIT Drawing from Intuit’s permanent collection of more than 1,200 works of art and from prominent collections worldwide, Intuit is devoted to the exclusive presentation of outsider and contemporary self-taught art through world-class exhibitions featuring emerging and established self-taught, visionary and outsider artists. In addition to exhibitions, Intuit is a model for the role museums can and should play in community engagement, helping audiences discover the power of art in the world and the creativity found in each person, and is a vital resource for students, scholars and the art enthusiasts, with the Henry Darger Room collection, the Robert A. Roth Study Center, educational programs and more.
YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL. ART.ORG CAMPAIGN CHAIR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Ralph Concepcion
Debra Kerr
ralph822@me.com
312.243.9088 | deb@art.org
ON VIEW THROUGH FEBRUARY 8, 2016 An accompanying catalogue will be available November 20, 2015.
Lee Godie, untitled; gelatin silver print; 3.75 x 4.75 in. Collection of Scott H. Lang.
GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY
4 THE OUTSIDER
INTUIT PREPARES FOR NEXT QUARTER CENTURY
Outsider artists don’t tend to be self-promoters. Their creations
unknown artists with the world, we must not hide our own
come from a deeply personal place, usually without regard to
light under a bushel, either. One emblem of this new phase
commercial markets or any audience beyond their immediate
is already underway. Early in our next quarter century, a new,
circles. These artists don’t develop networks in art school,
much more prominent facade will welcome passers-by along
approach galleries or work with publicists. Most often, they’re
busy Milwaukee Avenue. Graciously designed by renowned
creating art simply because they need to express their vision.
firm Studio Gang, the fully accessible entrance will entreat
many more people to experience what we offer and make
For the last quarter century, Intuit has nurtured such
artists and helped build a community around the art. Our
Intuit a landmark in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood.
supporters have searched in unlikely corners for art that
INTUIT CELEBRATES THE POWER OF OUTSIDER ART AND ARTISTS
touches us, and we’ve shared it through thoughtfully curated exhibits. We haven’t stopped there, of course. Through our outreach programs, we’ve steadily increased recognition of outsider art, reaching more than 80,000 art enthusiasts, teachers and students each year.
As we approach our 25th anniversary in 2016, Intuit is
poised to emerge from its fledgling position of being wellrespected by those who know us to having dramatically more widespread recognition and relevance. This year alone, we’ve almost doubled our attendance over 2014.
and artists, including Lee Godie, an homage to the Corcoran’s
My vision for Intuit is twofold: to be the most accessible
2016 promises an exciting line-up of important exhibits
museum experience in Chicago and to engage audiences
early “Black Folk Art in America” exhibit and more. We need
worldwide in outsider art. To realize this vision, Intuit will
your help to accomplish all we have planned, including our
continue to mount expectation-breaking exhibitions of outsider
physical upgrades.
art. We will be a leader in modeling what museums can be in
the 21st century—exciting, relevant, a gathering place and
today by visiting art.org. Together, we will position Intuit as an
community catalyst for good, leveraging the power of the genre
international leader, celebrating the power of self-taught art.
If you aren’t already a member or donor, please join
and the stories of the artists.
We will devote many more resources to promoting
our work. If one of Intuit’s key roles is to share the talent of
Photos by Cheri Eisenberg, Lucas Pearson, Joel Javier and Debra Kerr.
— D EB R A KER R , EXECU TIVE D IR ECTO R
THE OUTSIDER 5
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS FROM A PARALLEL ART UNIVERSE BY TOM PATTERSON
Drawing is the most direct and economical of art mediums.
collection of art by inmates at the University Hospital Heidelberg.
Almost any implement or material can be used to draw, and
Of more than 200 works reproduced in its pages, the vast
available drawing surfaces are everywhere. This easy access
majority are drawings. Just as in mainstream art history, then,
historically made drawing the most convenient form of visual
drawing occupies a foundational position in the unruly parallel
expression in institutions designed to house psychologically
art universe that Morgenthaler, Prinzhorn and Dubuffet revealed
disturbed, socially ill-adapted individuals. It was almost
with their writings and source collections.
exclusively among such populations that the initial discoveries
were made in the field of Art Brut, European artist Jean Dubuffet’s
global proportions since the mid-20th century, English-language
term roughly translatable as “raw art.” Much, if not most,
alternatives to Dubuffet’s brut have proliferated to include
of the art made by compulsively creative patients in these
“self-taught,” “vernacular,” “contemporary folk” and “outsider,”
settings has been in the form of drawings, as evidenced
among others. The field’s parameters have likewise expanded to
by the seminal early publications of European psychiatrists
encompass a range of non-academic visual expression, without
Walter Morgenthaler and Hans Prinzhorn.
necessary reference to factors like its social context or the
mental-health status of the artists.
In Switzerland, Morgenthaler studied the drawings of
As the audience for this non-official art has expanded to
his patient Adolf Wölfli for his book, A Psychiatric Patient as
Intuit’s dRAW, curated by longtime Intuit exhibitions
Artist, published in 1921. In Artistry of the Mentally Ill, which
committee chair Jan Petry, provides a wide-ranging overview
appeared the following year, Prinzhorn analyzed an extensive
of the field and its evolution over the last 100 years through a
Left: Lubos Plny, Man at Childbirth, 2007. Mixed media on paper, 37¾ x 26¾ in. Cavin-Morris Gallery.
THE OUTSIDER 7
horseback. The power reflected in his heroic pose is reinforced by his horse’s prominently displayed phallus, as well as the mysterious, ringed staff-like form balanced atop the horse’s backside and supported by the horseman’s right hand. Today, relatively few of the countless individuals diagnosed as mentally ill remain institutionalized, and, in recent decades, many have been left to their own devices, often winding up homeless and problem-plagued. Such has been the case with several artists represented here, including Dwight Mackintosh, whose intense figural drawings are characterized by concentric wiry lines and indecipherable cursive texts, reflecting an urgency surpassing his powers of verbal expression. Indecipherable texts are even more prominent in the drawings Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled, 1960. Crayon on paper, 13¼ x 8¼
of contemporary artist Dan Miller, diagnosed as autistic.
in. Courtesy of the artist and Chris Byrne.
He writes words and numbers on top of each other until they blur beyond focus, densely accumulating around his crudely
substantial group of drawings brought together from varied sources. It includes strong, characteristic works by some of the most widely known “raw” artists alongside drawings by some of the field’s more recently emerged figures. Chronologically and thematically, the exhibition begins with
rendered images of ordinary objects. Melvin “Milky” Way was a functional member of society, before he was socially derailed by the onset of mental problems in his twenties. Individual letters, numbers and symbols are clearly legible in his densely composed, cryptic drawings, whose meanings remain obscure.
Art Brut in its original sense—works produced by sociallymarginalized individuals diagnosed as mentally ill and, in some cases, institutionalized. Among the earliest are two of Wölfli’s small but powerful drawings, both incorporating portraits of his alter-ego, St. Adolf. A generation younger than Wölfli, Friederich Schröder-Sonnenstern was a brilliant nonconformist intermittently institutionalized for his defiant behavior. Each of his three drawings in the show portrays one or more of the grotesquely hilarious hybrid beings that were his stock in trade. Their graphic sophistication and nuanced use of color are characteristic of his work, as is their sardonic treatment of his favorite themes—sexuality, power relationships, metaphysics and apocalypse.
Of equal graphic power, if far less extreme in their subject
matter, are the drawings of Mexico’s Martín Ramírez, confined
Henry Speller, Untitled, 1991. Graphite, crayon on paper, 18 x 24 in. Collection of Stacy and Tim Bruce.
for most of his life in a California mental institution. Two of
Several artists represented in dRAW created in solitude while
the three examples here incorporate a favorite architectural
living in the midst of mainstream society. After he was forced
motif—rows of open doorways stacked in tiers, suggesting
into isolation by the Nazis during World War II, Polish
a potentially limitless structure with no apparent exit. His
shopkeeper Edmund Monseil began a 20-year output of
drawing of a man seated at a table with a pen in hand might
obsessive drawing, covering sheets of paper with images of
be a self-portrait. Of special interest is the show’s striking,
mustachioed figures whose faces are replicated on a miniature
collage-augmented drawing of a starkly white-faced man on
scale in dense swarms that completely fill each drawing’s
8 THE OUTSIDER
M’onma, Untitled, 2003. Colored pencil on paper, 32 1/8 x 19½ in. Cavin-Morris Gallery.
THE OUTSIDER 9
10 THE OUTSIDER Adolf Wolfli, Untitled, n.d. Mixed media on paper, 35 x 29 in. Collection of Mike and Cindy Noland.
Carlo Zinelli, Untitled, (Priest at Altar/Woman Seated on Bench), 1973. Gouache on paper, 19¾ x 27½ in. Robert A. Roth Collection. Photo: Wm. H. Bengtson
space. These works are textbook examples of horror vacui,
drawing and painting. But he lived near relatives and the rural
or fear of empty space, as evidenced by the example in the
church he regularly attended, and before he became an artist
exhibition. Chicago’s Henry Darger spent much of his life
he fathered 11 children. His work is culturally linked to that of
writing and elaborately illustrating an epic novel, Realms of the
other 20th-century African American artists represented here,
Unreal, which has posthumously made him the most famous
including Alabama’s Bill Traylor, born a plantation slave, and
American outsider artist. The exhibition includes two of
Thornton Dial, whose work has gained widespread recognition
his inventive composite tracings illustrating the adventures
as front-line contemporary art, discussed without reference to
of the Vivian girls, his heroines, and a fanciful depiction of
limiting adjectives like self-taught or vernacular. Roy Ferdinand,
a “Blengin,” a winged dragon-like ally of the Vivian girls.
a master of clear-eyed visual street reporting in New Orleans’s
James Castle spent his life in rural Idaho with members of
black neighborhoods, deserves the same kind of respect for
his birth family but was socially isolated by his deafness.
his tellingly detailed drawings, but, as recognition comes,
He kept mainly to himself, scavenging materials he used to
he won’t know about it, as he died of cancer in 2004 when he
draw and make small constructions distinguished by an
was only 45.
idiosyncratic formal simplicity.
but it’s more properly understood and appreciated as visionary
J.B. Murray was an African American sharecropper
To return to Murray’s work, the cultural context is important,
whose bare-bones house in rural Georgia certainly gave the
art. In fact, it was a religious vision Murray experienced in
appearance of profound isolation. Murray evidently spent
1978 that set him off creatively. Although he was illiterate,
much of his time alone there in his later years, after he began
his art took the form of “spirit writing,” a kind of calligraphic
THE OUTSIDER 11
James Castle, Untitled (double sided), n.d. Mixed media on found paper, 12 7/8 x 13 in. Collection of Robert Grossett. Photo: Wm. H. Bengtson 12 THE OUTSIDER
Bill Traylor, Untitled, n.d. Blue and brown pencil on cardboard, 19他 x 15 in. Private collection. Photo: Wm. H. Bengtson
glossolalia, or divine language, which he claimed the ability to
read and understand when he studied it through a clear glass
that abbreviated list could also be discussed as examples
For those keeping categorical score, all of the 10 artists in
container of “holy water” drawn from the well in his yard.
of neuve invention1 (another Dubuffet term) and/or art singulier2
No one else has ever been able to perform this feat of
—additional subcategories of the field.
translation, but the drawings are beautiful, appropriately fluid
and pure—raw—without contrivance, as exemplified by the
artists have been mentioned as this essay wraps up—a
two in the exhibition.
concession to familiar limitations (space, time, funding). There
Scorekeepers will note that fewer than half the exhibition’s
are certainly other prominent subcategories of the field represented here. Likewise, much could be said and written about any of the exhibited artists who have gone unmentioned. Fortunately, this is happening, thanks to the continuing, steadily spreading interest in international Art Brut and its offshoots. Internet searches of any of them are likely to turn up additional information and critical insights into their work.
As for the experience of looking at—and seeing—this
exhibition, viewers can engage most deeply and meaningfully with these drawings by forgetting about the categories and appraising them in terms of their aesthetic power and individuality of expression. Each one represents a dense Gunther Schutzenhofer, Butterfly, n.d. Pencil on paper, 17¼ x 44 in. Louis Dreyfus Family Collection.
concentration of personal spiritual energy.
These are drawings that had to be made—that urgently
needed to be brought into being. ■
Visionary art is art fueled by encounters with unfamiliar
forces or entities, vast expansions of consciousness or other personal unexplainable experiences. Although psychiatry has traditionally stigmatized individuals who report such experiences, they’re surely as common among functioning members of society as among psychiatric patients.
This exhibition features works by a number of contemporary
artists who have been steadily creating visionary art for years: Noviadi Angkasapura, Charles Benefiel, J.J. Cromer, Daniel Martin Diaz, Anthony Dominguez, William Fields, Solange Knopf, M’onma, Lubos Plny and George Widener. Their work is consistently interesting and dynamic—and, it bears repeating, contemporary. The work is sophisticated, but no
1
more so than Wölfli’s or Schröder-Sonnenstern’s. These artists
power and inventiveness to Art Brut, but their greater contact with normal
have gone about their creative lives with confident autonomy—
society and the awareness they had of their art works precluded their inclusion
aware to some extent of contemporaneous developments in academic or “fine” art, but disengaged from them. Except for Dominguez—who, sadly, made his self-chosen exit from this
Dubuffet realised there existed many creators whose work was of comparable
within his strict Art Brut category. …in 1982 this became the Neuve Invention section of the Collection de l’Art Brut. As definitions become more merged this term is losing its significance. www.rawvision.com/about/raw-visions-definitions A term more used in Europe relating to the works of artists, usually, but not
2
world in 2014—all remain alive, receiving and creating. It’s a
exclusively, self-taught, that are close to Art Brut and Outsider artists, both
very good sign for the field. The exhibition includes exemplary
in appearance and directness of expression. These are the artists “on the
drawings by each of them.
14 THE OUTSIDER
margins,” that grey area of definition that lies between Outsider Art and normal mainstream art, very similar to Dubuffet’s Neuve Invention category. Ibid.
THE OUTSIDER 15
Martin Ramirez, Untitled, c. 1952-1955. Mixed media on paper, 52½ x 37¾ in. Audrey Heckler Collection. Photo: Visko Hatfield.
16 THE OUTSIDER
INTUIT’S JOURNEY WITH BETTY ZAKOIAN ANN CERNEK WITH LEONARD CICERO
What makes Betty Zakoian an outsider artist?
Heather Holbus and I chose a few Zakoian pieces to exhibit at
Two of the major reasons we consider Betty an outsider artist
last year’s Milwaukee Avenue Art Festival. When it comes to
are that she never trained or studied as an artist and that she
the outsider art world’s exposure to Betty, I think Palimpsest,
did not begin creating work until later in life. Her son Paul was
the current exhibition at Intuit, is the first true showcase of
a recognized sculptor who studied at the Institute of Design
Zakoian’s work to enthusiasts and collectors.
and taught at the Contemporary Art Workshop, where her work was first exhibited. We believe that Paul was a great influence
AC: How did Intuit acquire the Betty Zakoian collection?
on Betty, which motivated her to start drawing and painting.
LC: It is quite remarkable that these works are part of Intuit’s collection. We are constantly approached by family members of artists
How was the outsider art world introduced to Betty Zakoian?
and asked to consider their work for exhibition or as additions
The first exhibition of Betty’s work known to us was at the
to Intuit’s permanent collection. We do not have enough
Contemporary Art Workshop around 1967. She later had
resources to acknowledge all of these solicitations, and many
an exhibit at the Thomas McCormick Gallery. More recently,
go unnoticed. Fortunately, however, someone involved at Intuit
Pierre Muyle, director of MADmusée in Belgium, chose a few
at the time the Zakoian family reached out to us saw the
of Betty’s paintings to be exhibited at Intuit in concert with
merit in the work and in Betty’s story. The pieces were soon
Brewed in Belgium, an exhibition of MADmusée’s permanent
thereafter donated to us through the Thomas McCormick Gallery.
collection hosted by Intuit in 2013. After that, [co-curator]
Left: Betty Zakoian, Mary and Jesus, n.d. Tempera on cardboard, 5 x 3in. Gift of the Zakoian Family. Collection of Intuit, 2007.5.16.
THE OUTSIDER 17
It is believed that Ms. Zakoian traveled extensively before moving to Chicago. Are there traces of other cultural influences in her work? There are traces of Betty’s travels and cultural awareness in several pieces. The catalog for her exhibition at the Thomas McCormick Gallery, as well as the notes we received on Betty with her artwork, show us that, as a young lady, the artist was a domestic servant in Egypt. To me, the untitled work, with insects and flowers, references this time; the large insect resembles a beetle, a sacred symbol in Egyptian history. Additionally, Betty often depicts flowers and birds in her works. We know that two birds on either side of an object is an important Armenian symbol and that the bird is often used to symbolize peace in Christian cultures. Whether we perceive references to new experiences or memories of a culture left behind, we simultaneously can note a strong spiritual presence in Zakoian’s paintings. How is the exhibit a part of Intuit’s commemoration of the Armenian genocide centennial? Many outside the Armenian community are unaware of the travesties of the early twentieth century. As the year 2015 Betty Zakoian, Sun and Planets, n.d. Tempera on cardboard,
marks the 100th anniversary of the events that led to the
22 x 16 in. Gift of the Zakoian Family. Collection of Intuit, 2007.5.46
execution and evacuation of more than one million Armenians from Turkey, we thought it an appropriate time to exhibit the
How do the themes of genocide, motherhood and religion interact across her work? Several of Betty’s pieces appear to be autobiographical. We do know that Betty was involved with her church, and we see several Madonna and Child–like images in her art. I think her devotion and beliefs were definitely influential and allowed to her to strive, despite the turmoil of her youth, towards becoming an artist and loving mother and wife. How is the immigrant narrative (leaving homeland to settle in a foreign, western world) present in her paintings? Betty’s story is one of survival, perseverance and reinvention. The same may be said of many immigrant stories, but not all involve escaping the slaughter of one’s own people. Betty’s
works and celebrate the life of artist Betty Zakoian.
Unfortunately, the experience of war is not an uncommon
one, and, in this way, the mission of the exhibit is accessible to many. Worldwide recognition of the centennial has allowed for the Armenian story to become a part of frequent social-justice discussion. We hope the exploration of Betty’s paintings and life story will continue to bring this history to light.
In conjunction with Betty’s work being on display, we are
producing the Chicago premiere of Harold Pinter’s play, Ashes to Ashes. Our intention is to provoke audiences to consider more intently their roles in their own communities and to reflect on how acts of violence affect the perpetrators and the victims, as well as those who choose to disengage and ignore what is happening in their immediate surroundings. ■
struggles to survive are presented in the paintings that deal with her escape from Turkey as a child, most notably in Turks Attack Me, Night Journey and Lost Journey.
Right, Top: Betty Zakoian, Turks Attack Me, n.d. Oil on canvas board, 12 x 16 in. Gift of the Zakoian Family. Collection of Intuit, 2007.5.60.
Right, Bottom: Betty Zakoian, Night Journey, n.d. Tempera on cardboard, 15 x 20 in. Gift of the Zakoian Family. Collection of Intuit, 2007.5.44.
18 THE OUTSIDER
THE OUTSIDER 19
20 THE OUTSIDER
HELL ON EARTH: THE ARTIST TERMED HIS WORK “THE RICHARD SAHOLT STORY” BY MICHAEL BONESTEEL
To paraphrase the words of the Howard Beale character in the
actually is. I have always been awed by the best of Saholt’s
1976 film Network, Richard Saholt (1924-2014) was mad as
collages, yet I’ve never been tempted to own one of them. I
hell, and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. Why was he so
possess the collection of work in the Intuit exhibition, “Mad as
angry? Two catastrophes occurred in his life. The first involved
Hell: The Collages of Richard Saholt,” because he bequeathed
his upbringing; the second was his participation in World War
them to me upon his death. Like the most extremely violent
II. Of the first, all we have are Saholt’s own memories, and,
carbon-traced watercolor drawings of Henry Darger (or, for
because he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, we cannot
that matter, certain extreme pieces by Francisco Goya, Otto
be sure if they were accurate. But, as his art so passionately
Dix or Joe Coleman), I am hesitant to hang Saholt’s work in
verifies, we are absolutely convinced he felt his memories
my home, as many are too disturbing to confront on a daily
to be true.
basis. But with this distinction: Darger’s (and Goya’s, Dix’s
and Coleman’s) extreme work is disturbing because of the
On a personal note, let me say I am not really sure Richard
Saholt’s work is art at all—or at least art in the traditional
violent depiction of human mutilation; Saholt’s extreme work
sense. Like much Art Brut work that has entered the cultural
is disturbing because of the rage and psychological pain he
mainstream over the past 150 years, Saholt’s astonishing
inflicts upon the viewer through the combination of unsettling
creations force us to broaden our definition of, and perhaps
words and images. It is a different kind of violence, to be sure,
even redefine (if it can really be defined at all), what art
but it is violence, nonetheless. But let us be brave and try to understand this man and his work.
Richard Saholt, single page from The Massive Attack: World War II, n.d. Mixed media, 12 x 9 in. Collection of Michael Bonesteel.
THE OUTSIDER 21
INBORN ERRORS OF METABOLISM!
recto side. The former are very much like the smaller works
A Saholt masterpiece titled Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde may be his
Saholt has created that contain far fewer collaged images and
definitive psychological self-portrait. It contains four photographs
more hand-written text. These, in turn, are invariably almost
of the artist in his later years, an assemblage of images of
identical to the many urgent letters he sent off over the years,
monsters from movie stills and magazine illustrations, as well
punctuated by exclamation points and underlined words,
as male and female faces betraying various states of anxiety
repeatedly asking the receiver to hear the tragic story of his
and fear. He is not only picturing himself and the dark,
life—what he came to call in his artworks “The Richard Saholt
monstrous side of his own personality, but he is projecting the
Story.” While this title appears embedded in various collages,
vision to include others, men and women like ourselves,
the work that officially claims The Richard Saholt Story and
thereby pulling us, his viewers, into the nightmare. Images
embodies it most spectacularly is a large, appropriated
are juxtaposed with words and phrases appropriated from
textbook (A Psychiatrist for a Troubled World by William Claire
newspapers, magazines and other sources: “madness,”
Menninger) with approximately half of its pages covered with
“painful,” “rage,” “depression,” “violence,” “suicide,”
collaged words and images. The obsessive approach that
“psychosis,” “crazy!” “disturbed minds,” “the torment of a
usually unfolds across his larger collaged works is here
schizophrenic,” “the victim cycle,” “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.”
confined to page after page of dense, unrelenting, almost
The effect is like concrete poetry that has been cemented
claustrophobic illustrated narrative.
together with images that interpret the text. More than that,
Saholt demonstrates how effective the interweaving of
everything he communicates within that context. Whether true
image and text can be. While he sometimes includes longer
or not, it is—again—obvious he believed what he was saying
paragraphs clipped from newspaper stories, it is really the
was true. Throughout his life, he railed against his father, who,
shorter words and phrases that pack the biggest punch,
he reported, was an undertaker who also taught mortuary
because they are most immediately communicated and, thus,
science at the University of Minnesota. Among other things,
accost the viewer most potently.
his father forced him to be right-handed despite his natural
proclivity to be a lefty. The father wanted his sons, Richard
If it were not for the complex and intricate lyrical design
Because of Saholt’s own mental illness, we must take
and placement of his pictorial and verbal configurations, it
and Robert, to follow in his footsteps but, apparently, took
would indeed be difficult to look at Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
sadistic glee in terrifying them as young children by exposing
As it is, the onslaught of volatile information is not only made
them to dead bodies hanging from meat hooks in the
tolerable, but it is quite skillfully and beautifully arranged.
University of Minnesota’s morgue.
Still, as if this were not enough, Saholt covers the entire verso
side of the work with hand-written messages: “The whole
the cadaver of a young boy his own age in a funeral outfit
family relationship was extremely and highly disturbed from
and, another time, to gather up in a bushel basket the
beginning to end! My Dad and two sisters and brother were
dismembered body parts of a man who had been hit by a
schizophrenic! Everybody suffered from inborn errors of
train. Saholt maintained his father repeatedly sexually molested
metabolism! My Dad and one sister were violent and they were
his own daughter, Saholt’s sister, as well as his grandchildren.
trouble from day one! My mother was blacking out all the
And he frequently threatened the members of his family with a
time! Dad was to blame for this! There was schizophrenia
loaded gun if they did not comply with his every need.
According to Saholt, his father once forced him to dress
on my mother’s side! Mother was destroyed by this insane, deranged bastard!”
FATHER AND WAR BECAME HIS BITTER ENEMIES
“This can be passed on to kids of combat veterans! My
During World War II, the already psychologically damaged and
sister Ginny and I got it the worst! My Dad never recovered
stammering 18-year-old Saholt enlisted in the U.S. Army’s
from
! The war turned him into a deadly monster! He
World War I
elite 85th Mountain Ski Troop Division. On more than one
was the Father from Hell! The whole family was devastated by
occasion, he claimed the voices in his head saved his life.
this! I was destroyed by two wars!”
They screamed “Duck!” at one point, and, when he raised
himself up, he found that the heads of the infantrymen around
The messages on the verso side elaborate somewhat
more intellectually the raw emotional information on the
22 THE OUTSIDER
him had been blown off by mortar fire. Then, as he and his
Richard Saholt, My life was shattered, n.d. Altered photograph, 5 x 3½ in. Collection of Michael Bonesteel. THE OUTSIDER 23
Richard Saholt, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, recto (above) and verso, n.d. Mixed media, 34 ¼ x 49 ¾ in. Collection of Michael Bonesteel. 24 THE OUTSIDER
comrades approached a fortification near Castel d’Aiono, Italy,
in all of his books & this was the reason they sent me up to
on April 15, 1945, the voices yelled “Charge!”, and he, armed
meet with Marshall. Marshall saw me twice at his home on
with a rifle, bayonet and hand grenades, attacked the
the campus [of the University of Toronto] & treated me great!
compound and caused the surrender of 13 enemy soldiers.
I spent two weeks in Toronto. I brought some of my art work
Although he received a Bronze Star for his heroic actions, the
with me. MacLuhan called my art work brilliant & on a genius
Veterans Administration refused to award him disability
level! He offered to write my book but he died!” (Excerpted
payments for his back and leg injuries, his blackouts stemming
from a letter by Saholt dated Feb. 17, 2012.) Saholt said that
from concussions, or his mounting post-traumatic stress
MacLuhan suggested he work larger, so, after 1974, the size
disorder. After decades of writing letters, hiring lawyers and
of his collages increased dramatically.
losing court cases, he finally discovered in 1969 that upon
enlistment he had been diagnosed with chronic undifferentiated
“World War II,” the word “hell” is probably the most frequently
schizophrenia and labeled “one of the most bizarre and
repeated text in his collages. Note how often it appears in the
genuinely crazy” people to be admitted into the military. There
following titles: Hell, the Onslaught, Night Never Ending; Wild
was no reason why he should ever have been admitted in the
Hell Assault Company; and Up from Never, War Hell Soldier.
first place. At long last in 1974, he was given a small monthly
(Nearly all of Saholt’s works are untitled, but I have taken the
stipend and three years back pay, but Saholt continued to
liberty of giving them titles derived from the most prominent
battle with the VA to the end of his life for financial restitution
words in his compositions. In the end, however, these titles are
of the preceding 29 years he went without any financial
somewhat arbitrary.) Other words that appear frequently are
remuneration for disability.
“kill,” death,” “onslaught” and “The Gothic Line.”
The trauma he experienced from his father was added to
War was certainly hell for Saholt. Next to the phrase
The war pieces, like his work in other genres, tend to be
the trauma he underwent during World War II, so both father
arranged symmetrically, with a main image and/or group of
and war became his bitter enemies, the perpetrators of his
words occupying the center of the composition surrounded by
psychological torture. In fact, the majority of his works may
other images and words fanning out or otherwise proceeding
be divided into those dealing with schizophrenia and those
away from the center. For example, in World War II Terror!, the
dealing with war. A smaller number address other subjects.
components are designed in a rough sort of symmetry, with
“See, in 1964 I went back out to the Veteran’s Administration
figures on the left all generally facing right and vice-versa on
because I’d been trying to get service-connected disability
the right. The letters of the central word “Terror!” are blood
since WWII. The head of the VFW at the time listened to my
red and dripping as if lifted from the title of a horror movie. A
story. And he said, ‘Dick what I want you to do is, I want you
jigsaw puzzle of various-sized, round-cornered geometric and
to go back home and I want you to start putting this—what
organic shapes are set against a black background, providing
you’re telling me—on paper.’ And I thought to myself: ‘You’ve
a dramatic framing device for each component and lending to
already got it all in the records, and I’ve been fighting you guys
an overall effect of looking at a stained glass window.
since WWII and I’ve been documenting everything!’ So I knew
I was just getting another massive snowjob. But I couldn’t
the help of smaller images that tie them together visually.
articulate with him. So I went back home and I started putting
There are numerous skulls, swastikas, swords, crosses, guns,
it together. But first I went to my mother’s place. She had a big
and soldiers in American and Nazi uniforms. A variety of styles
trunk that she had all my stuff in that I’d saved from the Army.
and mediums are presented here, from war scenes slickly
I pulled out everything and brought everything back here.
painted in vibrant color derived from men’s adventure
And that’s when I started to do the collages.” (From the recto
magazine covers, to black–and-white reproductions of
side of the small collage titled A brain that doesn’t work right.
dry-point etchings and expressionist pen-and-ink drawings,
Schizophrenia.)
as well as documentary photographs from the Second World
War. World War II Terror! contains fewer words than many of
Ten years into his experiments in collage, Saholt met
The larger collaged shapes fit around one another with
cultural philosopher Marshall McLuhan: “The University of
Saholt’s other compositions, but the minimal words can have a
Minnesota knew that McLuhan used a lot of montage art work
more hard-hitting impact than his wordy collages.
THE OUTSIDER 25
killer John Wayne Gacy. A smaller work titled Bizarre: John Wayne Gayce contains photographs of Gacy with second wife, Carole Hoff, on their wedding day surrounded by the words “loving family man,” mug shots of Gacy after his arrest for raping and murdering 33 young men, a rendering of Gacy’s suburban home covered in blood, plus the words “psycho,” “the massacre,” “blood thirsty butcher” and “After the boy’s hands were fastened behind his back, John didn’t have to make soothing noises anymore.” A larger work, Every Mother’s Fear: Abduction, features the reproduction of a signed photograph by First Lady Rosalynn Carter picturing her with Gacy two years before his arrest, as well as newspaper articles about Gacy wanting Rod Steiger to play him in a movie, and Gacy selling three of his four paintings in a prisoners’ art sale.
Most of the above collages deal with tragedies and
atrocities of one sort or another, and this was precisely why Saholt memorialized them. He was obsessed by his own victimization by forces over which he had no control, and, therefore, related easily to others who were similarly caught in a web of darkness and death. This is not to say he did not occasionally create collages on positive subjects. He made Richard Saholt, single page from The Massive Attack: World War II, n.d. Mixed media, 12 x 9 in. Collection of Michael Bonesteel.
Although there is almost always a centralized configuration
numerous works dedicated to secular and non-secular holidays, among other subjects. Most of these were designed in a straightforward manner and without much complexity. One is on the topic of America’s patriotic heritage and another
of elements, a number of his collages are designed more
celebrates Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding day.
asymmetrically, with hundreds of small components packed
Curiously, he did not do a follow-up on Princess Diana’s
chock-a-block together. When this occurs, and it is composed
ultimate demise.
of largely black-and-white words and images with only
occasional random accents of red and yellow color—as it is in
took its toll in other ways over the years. A number of well-
Hell, the Onslaught, Night Never Ending and Wild Hell Assault
intentioned friends and acquaintances tried to serve as his
Company—Saholt achieves an overwhelming grimness that is
agent or spokesperson, but the artist, whose paranoia would
highly evocative of his experiences in the mountain ski patrol.
inevitably make him suspicious of what he saw as their ulterior
In such works, he has symbolically reduced his palette to
motives, eventually turned against them all. The only person
the bare essentials: black for night, white for snow, and red
who remained close to him and earned his unwavering trust
for blood.
was his wife of nearly 60 years, Doris, whom he met just after
In his personal life, the ravages of Saholt’s mental illness
his discharge from the Army in a class in which he was taking OBSESSED BY HIS OWN VICTIMIZATION
voice lessons for his stuttering. She nursed him though the
Saholt’s interest in other subjects tended toward dramatic
side effects of anti-psychotic medications that, he said, made
events involving political, religious and Hollywood figures.
him feel as if he were buried alive in a coffin. She stood by
There are works devoted to Nixon and Watergate, Natalie
him through his bouts with self-medicating alcoholism. She
Wood’s controversial death, assassination attempts on Anwar
protected him from doctors who wanted to treat his illness with
Sadat and Pope John Paul, and John Belushi’s fatal drug
electro-shock therapy and a lobotomy. She earned a living for
overdose. One subject he profiled several times was serial
both of them, because he could not hold down a job. When
26 THE OUTSIDER
I met her in 2001, she looked as if she had been through a
war. No doubt, she had. Doris—his buffer against the world
his pain and suffering. He wrestled with his internal demons in
In the process of making his collages, Saholt externalized
and against his own worst nature—died in 2011. Within three
an objective fashion and forced them to conform to his need
years, he would follow her.
for order amid the schizophrenic chaos. For a short time, his
Richard Saholt died at age 89 on Jan. 12, 2014, at
pain and suffering were not controlling him; he was controlling
Providence Place nursing home in Minneapolis. The cause of
them. He was no longer a victim. He became the master of his
his death was basil cell carcinoma (multiple sites). The
pain and suffering. This had to provide a sense of gratification
secondary cause of his death was listed as schizophrenia.
and accomplishment, perhaps even a sort of closure. Sadly, the process had to be repeated over and over again with each
NO LONGER A VICTIM
new collage. But, at least for the time he was working on his
Whether or not Richard Saholt’s magnificent creations are art
art, it was enough to get him through another day. ■
or not is not what is important. What is significant is that his work has something real and honest to say about the experience of being schizophrenic and about the experience of being traumatized by war, and these feelings are rarely said in such a direct and powerful way. Unlike much art today that is primarily intellectual and conceptual, intuitive art like Saholt’s springs from the primal necessities of the maker, from the needs of the artist’s innermost psyche.
Richard Saholt, Nightmare, n.d. Mixed media on paper, 28 x 44 in. Collection of Michael Bonesteel.
THE OUTSIDER 27
DONATIONS ENHANCE INTUIT’S COLLECTION AND EXHIBITS
EXPOSED!! showcased select recent gifts, promised gifts and strong works from Intuit’s permanent collection. Photos by Cheri Eisenberg. Occasionally, Intuit will mount exhibitions of works from its
permanent collection. Thanks to donor Martha Griffin, Intuit
permanent collection; this practice serves to highlight recent gifts
has a more comprehensive selection from which to continue to
and emphasize how the pieces enhance the collection. 2014 was
promote this distinctive and important artist.
an exceptional year for donations, and many were handsomely
featured in Intuit’s summer 2015 exhibition EXPOSED!!.
from Selig and Angela Sacks six paintings by Purvis Young
(1943-2010). Most are abstract and expressionistic with dark,
In 2014, Intuit acquired a single tower cathedral, created in
In addition to these wonderful donations, Intuit also acquired
1960’s by the Italian artist Aldo Piacenza (1888-1976). A gift of
muddy colors on found material. These pieces aren’t yet
Paula Giannini, the painted white church-like structure with a
ready for exhibition, but, with a little conservation, they will be
rough-hewn metal roof, windows filled in with red paint
prepared for viewing.
and outlined light blue frames is now one of two whimsical
birdhouse cathedrals in Intuit’s collection. Piacenza, a resident
time, energy and great enthusiasm to Intuit, she also occasionally
of Highwood, Illinois, crafted his birdhouses from scrap wood
contributes spectacular pieces to the permanent collection.
and found objects, modeling them after his childhood memories
Intuit is especially pleased to accept a recent, rare, double-sided
of Italy’s architecture
work by Consuelo ‘Chelo’ Gonzalez Amezcua (1903-1975).
Amezcua’s Filigree Bush (1974) is a tiny composition—only 8
Also included in the summer exhibition was a recent addition
Not only does board member Cleo F. Wilson contribute her
to the collection by Derek Webster (1934-2009)—an untitled
by 12 inches—that includes birds, flowers and a lady’s profile
wooden assemblage reminiscent of a life-sized candelabra
portrait, meticulously depicted among busy, repetitive lines, all
painted white with red, yellow, green and black shapes. The
of which are enclosed by a drawn, ornamental frame.
sculpture was donated to Intuit by Charles and Cain Baum and
had previously been featured in Intuit’s 2004 exhibition Vibrant
and every gift is greatly appreciated. These acquisitions inform
Spirits: The Art of Derek Webster. Webster’s work, like
decisions for showing the exquisite gifts we receive, such as
Piacenza’s, illuminates the potential magic of found objects
the recent capsule exhibition Palimpsest, featuring the works of
when they make it into the right hands. As Derek put it: “I make
Betty Zakoian, donated by the artist’s family. If you would like
art out of junk. I think they call that recycling now.”
to contribute and be counted as one of Intuit’s valued donors,
please consider sharing a gift of art. Your generous donation
Even for those relatively new to outsider art, the name
Intuit’s growing collection is entirely comprised of donations,
Joseph Yoakum (1889-1972) might be familiar. His nearly
will serve to strengthen not only our burgeoning collection but
abstracted imaginary landscapes are welcome additions to the
also our educational programming and mission. — JANE ELIZABETH ROSS
28 THE OUTSIDER
INTUIT TAKES EDUCATION BEYOND THE EXHIBIT
The IntuiTeens facilitate art making for Intuit guests (left). Guest and teacher participants enjoy posing with artist David Philpot following his do-it-yourself staff-making workshop. Photos by Debra Kerr and Joel Javier.
Every visitor to Intuit gets an education. Taking in the vibrant
exhibits, a person comes to a visceral appreciation of what
expression beyond the classroom. Started in 2014, IntuiTeens
everyday people are capable of creating. But not everyone
engages youth from across the city. Over the summer-long
sets foot inside Intuit’s building, which is why for years
program, teens are empowered to develop peer-to-peer art
the organization has made significant efforts to bring arts
creation workshops at teen-facing spaces such as Chicago
education outside its walls.
Public Library branches.
Intuit’s Teacher Fellowship Program is its flagship
Intuit’s newest educational program takes creative
This past summer, two students who discovered outsider
educational initiative. Through TFP, Intuit staff work with
art through the Teacher Fellowship Program went on to join
Chicago Public Schools teachers, particularly in underserved
IntuiTeens. “Intuit has so much to offer, from community
areas, to develop an outsider art curriculum that teachers
workshops, events and screenings to more formal programs
then use in their lesson plans. The program incorporates a
like TFP,” said Joel Javier, education manager. “The more
field trip to Intuit and culminates with a student exhibition.
our programs can build on one another like this, involving
Over the program’s 15 years, Intuit has trained more than
participants over time, the more deeply we’ll be able to
100 teachers, who in turn have reached some 10,000
integrate outsider art into the lives of young people.”
students. Now, along with Science and English Language Arts, these students can learn about outsider artists such as
— DON PARKER
Henry Darger and Lee Godie—and about their own capacity for creative expression.
THE OUTSIDER 29
BOOK REVIEWS Extensive research results in definitive Ramírez portrait Martin Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art, by Victor M. Espinosa. University of Texas
MARTÍN RAMÍREZ Framing His Life and Art VÍCTOR M. ESPINOSA
Press, Austin, 388 pages, 24 color photos and 54 b/w, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4773-0775-5. Hard cover, $40
Espinosa reveals Pasto’s price to Nutt for the original 250-
odd drawings he bought ($3,750) and how much Kind sold them for in turn (a lot more). He turns up other surprising— and more fascinating—facts as well. It’s not news that Ramírez drawings were exhibited several times during his lifetime, but it’s a little surprising just how well received they were, at least in some circles. The Berkeley guestbook comments, not to mention some of the reviews of the various shows, demonstrate reactions no less sophisticated than many current appreciations of Ramírez’s work.
Why, then, did the artist effectively vanish from view for
the next 20-odd years, until the mid-1970s? One problem was that Ramírez himself remained invisible—literally anonymous
Martín Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art joins the five or 10 most important books yet published on self-taught art.
It is the definitive treatment of a universally acknowledged
self-taught master and is likely to remain definitive given the rigor of Victor Espinosa’s research. It tells in detail a remarkable story of stubborn creativity and survival against odds that would daunt the most determined genius. It brings great insight to some of the field’s toughest, most sensitive issues, even if you don’t agree with every one of the conclusions.
Espinosa spent years constructing a history of the artist
and an interpretation of his work based not on speculation or the fragments of biography floating around the art world but built by tracking every lead and undertaking a carefully written and disciplined reading of the art.
Was there a show at UC-Berkeley in 1952? He finds the
guest book with its comments. What about Ramírez’s medical records? He has reviewed them page by page. And exactly how did Ramírez’s work come to renewed prominence in the 1970s? Espinosa doesn’t just recount the oft-repeated discovery story, with Chicago artist Jim Nutt happening on drawings at Sacramento State College and then working with dealer Phyllis Kind to unveil them. The book recounts the path of all the work (or at least the some 450 known drawings) from obscurity to the art market, involving more than just Nutt, Kind and Tarmo Pasto, the psychologist who was Ramírez’s foremost patron and the original conduit for the work that established his artistic reputation.
30 THE OUTSIDER
as a mental patient whose real name went unpublished—and creatively submerged in the pigeon hole labeled “psychotic art.”
This book puts to bed any interpretation of the work as
a reflection of mental illness. Espinosa’s research shows that evidence of clearly schizophrenic behavior is absent from the record. That doesn’t require a claim that Ramírez was absolutely sound mentally, but being “confused,” “laughing foolishly over nothing” and mumbling in a “sing-song fashion” hardly amount to psychosis worthy of commitment, let alone an explanation of his art.
Ramírez’s forcible separation from his family and culture
and his long residence in the particular conditions of 20th-century asylums are clearly true facts and most likely affected his overall mental health. But that doesn’t equal psychotic art. And if Ramírez was more isolated in his creative work than most artists, those conditions still don’t necessarily imply the aesthetic seclusion beloved in art brut cliché. Besides the publications to which he had access and sometimes collaged into his work, Espinosa shows that Ramírez participated in arts-and-crafts workshops and garnered direct feedback on his creative efforts from fellow patients, caretakers, visitors like Pasto and even the renowned artist Wayne Thiebaud.
Espinosa delves at some length into how confinement in
asylums—“total institutions” in the totalitarian sense—likely affected the content and style of the art. The analysis doesn’t nail every detail, as he would certainly admit, but it’s far more enlightening than the old theories of schizophrenic art, or just
Martín Ramírez, Untitled, c. 1950s. Gouache, colored pencil, and
Martín Ramírez, Untitled, c1950s. Pencil, tempera, and collage on
graphite on pieced paper. 39 1/2 x 25 in. Estate of Martín Ramírez.
paper. 19 x 14 in. Private collection. © Estate of Martín Ramírez.
© Estate of Martín Ramírez.
banishing any coherent meaning to the lands of enigma and
or simply to decorate his drawings, or even to accomplish
abstraction. Specifically, Espinosa believes the work “is an
something similar to the conscious practices of his abstractionist
autobiography that visually narrates events and represents
contemporaries. But, as Espinosa demonstrates, we can be
meaningful places,” both in Ramírez’s Mexican homeland and
confident that the figurative imagery is largely autobiographical.
in California, his residence for the remainder of his adult life.
That interpretation seems very much like common sense.
“While abstract art as a modernist visual discourse
What’s amazing is that it took years of research and advocacy
consciously intended to abolish representation, everything in
by Espinosa and a handful of others (including Brooke Davis
Ramírez seems motivated by the need to represent. In this
Anderson and Randall Morris) to make it so painfully obvious
sense, Ramírez’s work contains a tense duality between
that Ramírez was attempting to show his version of a real
subjective representation and objective abstraction. Since
world, not simply insane or mysterious fantasies.
we do not have enough information to identify all the elements
that he intended to represent in his work, all of Ramírez’s
confused the issue, it still took more than research and advocacy
representations are, in some ways, abstractions to us: he
to escape years of misleading preconceptions. No matter how
reduced or retained in his drawings the most relevant,
well received those 1950s shows may have been, the broader
from his perspective, observable or imagined organic and
art world, at least in the United States, was not ready to
inorganic elements.”
receive the drawings in their proper guise—as masterpieces.
The evolution of an art world capable of properly valuing the
In fact, we can’t know in all cases whether the artist was
drawing his fabulous lines to represent something in the world,
If it wasn’t any inadequacy on the artist’s part that
work is another, more complicated story, especially since the
THE OUTSIDER 31
drawings were, in many respects, no better understood in 1980
Among other things, a more scrupulous accounting of
or even 1990 than in 1950. But, nonetheless, by the last third
Ramírez’s story might have made his family part of it much
of the 20th century there was a large and growing audience
earlier, which would have been positive in terms of both equity
for work variously labeled contemporary folk art, art brut or
and knowledge of the artist’s real history, on which Espinosa
outsider art, and, whatever the clarity of its understanding, it
rightly puts a mighty premium.
recognized something special in the Ramírez drawings.
He writes: “The dominant discourse in the mainstream
The path from under the mattress of a Mexican immigrant
Is the work meaningful strictly as autobiography, however?
in a California asylum to New York gallery walls was still fraught,
curatorial field has tended to focus on the formal elements of
though, and Espinosa views it largely through the lens of the
the artwork at the expense of biography and social context.
unequal power relations involved along the way. Those un-
For many, the norm is still that the art must ‘speak for itself.’
equal relations can seem to corrupt interactions at every step,
Ramírez’s trajectory shows, however, that his work was thrown
a view especially favored by post-modern critical theory. But
in the trash for many years precisely because it could not
the socio-political dimension often resonates more in ex-post-
speak for itself.” Taking a contextual view of the art and artist
facto analysis than in practice. Most people find personally—
seems almost like an ethical imperative. Indeed, emphasizing
if not theoretically—acceptable ways to proceed with their
the formal qualities of artwork rather than the history that
affairs despite mismatched economic and social relationships
led to its creation is anathema to those academics who treat
and the philosophical/ethical risks they undoubtedly pose.
formalist connoisseurship as an insult to that history, or worse.
Yet the strictly contextualizing approach they prefer risks
The misunderstandings and personal agendas and ethical
gray areas are a necessary part of the Ramírez story, but only
paying more attention to what is commonplace about an artist
part of it. It also can be unfair to expect a player like Pasto,
than what is special. Background and heritage can be highly
in the 1950s, to behave in ways that conform to more recent
relevant to understanding an artist’s work, but, in themselves,
standards for both theory and practice. Pasto’s interest in the
they are not usually what makes the art important.
art of psychotics was arguably progressive at the time, even if
it now seems wrongheaded both aesthetically and medically.
artist’s unique vision and talent (and in theory does so without
A formalist appreciation, on the other hand, respects the
And it’s hard to decry Pasto personally collecting Ramírez
caring about, say, his or her mental health diagnosis). Of course,
drawings when most of them would otherwise have been
to ignore a work’s cultural content is an error of formalist
destroyed. Espinosa shows no evidence that Ramírez didn’t
extremism, but there ought to be a middle ground.
volunteer them, the unequal power relations created by his
Contextualization and formal appreciation are incompatible
residence in an asylum and presumably poor English
only in the polemics of their advocates and critics. There is no
notwithstanding. The many links in the chain that rescued
one right way to look at art, but arguably the best way accounts
Ramírez from obscurity deserve to be cut some slack.
for both the artist’s context and the work’s formal qualities.
Better that the art be misunderstand and valued for the wrong
reasons than discarded.
much about Ramírez, his inventions and choices that we can’t
On the other hand, Espinosa shows legitimate annoyance
know, as Espinosa acknowledges. But, unless we wish to treat
with the chain of doctors, collectors, dealers, curators and crit-
him as feebleminded, as the California authorities did, we can
ics who were satisfied over the years to simply repeat received
give him the benefit of the doubt that he knew what he was
stories about Ramírez, his biography and mental state. There
doing, both contextually and formally, which is one reason he
was a laziness to it all that did favors to no one.
did it so well.
After reading this scrupulously thorough portrait, there is
“In practice, the production and exploitation of short
biographies and a ‘caption-style discourse’ became two powerful communicative tools for marketing outsider artwork efficiently. This explains why the myth of Ramírez as a mute schizophrenic who produced his work spontaneously and in complete silence and isolation went mostly unquestioned by those who promoted him as a ‘perfect paradigm of Outsider Art.’”
32 THE OUTSIDER
— WILLIAM SWISLOW
U.S. Postal Service issues Martín Ramírez stamps In March 2015 the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued
five commemorative postage stamps dedicated to the art of
American artist.” Strictly speaking, a Mexican-American is
Martín Ramírez. This event is something to celebrate. Thanks
someone born in the United Sates to Mexican parents or a
to the stamps, millions of people will have visual contact with
Mexican-born migrant who becomes an American citizen.
selected details of five Ramírez drawings. The stamps will
Ramírez, however, was born in Mexico and never became an
certainly contribute to popular recognition of Ramírez and his art.
American citizen. In the 1930s, the California psychiatric
Second, it is problematic to define Ramírez as a “Mexican-
system, the same system that first
For the Latino community,
by honoring Ramírez the Postal
secluded Ramírez against his will
Service is once again recognizing
and against the law, tried many
the contributions of Mexican-
times, unsuccessfully, to deport
Americans to U.S. culture and
him to Mexico. Using the racist
society—just as it did with the
language in vogue today, Ramírez
emission of stamps dedicated to
was an “illegal” Mexican migrant,
César Chávez, Ruben Salazar,
like the millions of undocumented
Lydia Mendoza, Selena and Frida
workers who live now in the
Kahlo. The outsider art community
United States with the fear of
has also been celebrating the
deportation. In short, what is
USPS decision to honor an outsider
unusual is the USPS decision to
artist: The stamps are seen as
celebrate an artist who carries the
evidence of the public’s growing
double social stigma of mental
appreciation for this artistic field.
illness and “illegality.”
There are, however, some important
issues to consider.
stamps underscores once again
the tension between the recognition
First, if we understand outsider
Finally, the design of Ramírez’s
art as synonymous with art brut,
of Ramírez as an artist and the
this is the first time an outsider
recognition of his artwork. When
artist has been celebrated by the
he was still alive, he was
USPS. Under this definition, however,
never invited to any of his five solo exhibitions (1952-1961). His
we are accepting Ramírez’s diagnosis as a chronic schizophrenic as unquestionable
name was never included in those exhibitions or in their press
fact—and assuming the formal characteristics of his work
reviews. The emission of this stamp confirms that even today
are the product of his presumed psychotic condition. If we
it is still difficult for him to be fully visible. It is a convention
define outsider art in a broader sense, as art produced by a
that, when a stamp is dedicated to an artist, the series always
self-taught artist, then this is not the first time an outsider artist
comes with a portrait of the artist, not necessarily in the stamp
has been recognized by the USPS. Besides a long tradition
itself, but on the page that holds the stamps. I provided
of celebrating identity art (three good examples are the series
high-resolution copies of the six existing photos of Ramírez to
dedicated to Amish quilts, American Indian art and New
the design team. At first, they chose a photo of Ramírez taken
Mexico Rio Grande Blankets), in 1969 the USPS issued a
on the grounds of DeWitt State Hospital in 1952. But in the
stamp depicting a 4th of July scene painted by Grandma
end, they were not able to get reproduction rights and did not
Moses. The famous Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog painted
include a photo. Martín Ramírez is, in a sense, absent again.
by self-taught artist Ammi Phillips was included in the 1998 series dedicated to Four Centuries of American Art. The most
— VICTOR ESPINOSA
recent example is the successful 2006 series dedicated to the quilts of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. THE OUTSIDER 33
Finster’s vision takes center stage in new book Envisioning Howard Finster: The
Religion and Art of a Stranger from Another World, by Norman J. Girardot, University of California Press, 304 pages, 16 color plates and 20 b/w illustrations, 2015. ISBN 9780520261105. Paperback, $29.95
For Girardot, that is a fundamentally spiritual message that Finster made material.
“To really know the world we live in is finally to see
through the passionate eyes of the artist and to know that our world is but an entangled composite of many worlds from the past, the present, and beyond,” he writes, citing the influence of folklorist Henry Glassie for this interpretation.
The appropriate response to that passion, at least when
expressed in a masterpiece is, he says, a “totalizing experience” that corresponds to the total commitment to passion and process shown by the artist who made the artwork, in this case an artist who, in Girardot’s telling, was a man of actual visions.
The prolific southern visionary Howard Finster was something of an enigma. How much of his colorful output was a matter of vision vs. showmanship? How important are his paintings vs. his Paradise Garden environment? Crazy, or crazy like a fox?
The flood of work (some 46,000 numbered pieces, nearly
all with spiritual messages) and his loquacious sermonizing raise another key question: Are we obligated to take the religious content seriously? Does it mean anything at all, or is it just a marker of rustic authenticity, or perhaps proof of his charming eccentricity? If we do choose to grapple with the religious messages, how literally did he mean them, and what really was he saying? There is a strong dose of Christian evangelism in the Finster enterprise, but also pop-cultural and planetary references that are hardly orthodox, owing more to Finster’s own visions than to the Bible.
Fortunately, expert opinion is available. Norman Girardot,
a longtime follower of Finster’s career, who happens to be a professor of comparative religion, shows in this book how Finster’s messages might fit into something resembling a comprehensible theology, and how that theology might fit into something resembling important art.
Despite Girardot’s self-confessed “penchant for interpre-
tive hyperbole and textual prolixity”—visible here at times—the book gives the flavor of the particular religious environment from which Finster emerged and how he transformed it through his art.
“Finster, in his visionary and artistic expansion of the
Southern Evangelical practice of preaching, moved in the direction of an increasingly aesthetic and unconventional affirmation of God’s divinity as revealed in diverse natural and human signs.”
34 THE OUTSIDER
Not everything Finster produced warrants that totalizing
experience, as Girardot recognizes. The artist is notorious for having devolved into assembly-line reproduction, and for generally favoring quantity over quality as a mean of getting his message out. But Girardot makes a case for the man’s art, especially work from the 1970s and ’80s (not to mention the Paradise Garden environment, which even Finster skeptics tend to admire as a masterpiece in itself).
Of importance, and contrary to typical readings of the
work, the only fundamentalism that Girardot recognizes in Finster is the artist’s own fundamental strangeness. But the shock of that strangeness was core to his liberating message. The different way of seeing the world that his vision demanded speaks to hope and acceptance, to a symbol-rich understanding of the world around us, physical and spiritual alike, rather than to a religious literalism.
“Visionary artists revive, reshape, and recycle the ordinary
world by giving themselves and all of us access to other, more vibrant alternative realms…. These are worlds that, once entered into, can potentially shock us out of the stupor produced by the mundane world and open us to a more creatively eccentric, enduring, and full life.” Indeed.
A personal note: Mid-book Girardot makes reference to
me and my interestingideas.com web site. After a bit of flattery, he calls out the embarrassing fact that he was the creator of a piece I labeled “my all-time favorite Finster work.” Because I could only view it behind a window into Finster’s World’s Folk Art Church, I did not see Girardot’s signature. Still a great piece of art, and credit to Girardot for creating it. — WILLIAM SWISLOW
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36 THE OUTSIDER
JANUARY 15–MARCH 27, 2016
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REVISITING “BLACK FOLK ART IN AMERICA” 2017
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THE OUTSIDER 37
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38 THE OUTSIDER If we need to use a bar code at all, I would repeat the title, volume and issue above the bar code block. Add the price.
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