RAWVISION86 SPRING 2015
EDITOR John Maizels DIRECTORS Henry Boxer, Robert Greenberg, Audrey Heckler, Rebecca Hoffberger, Phyllis Kind, Frank Maresca, Richard Rosenthal, Bob Roth ART EDITOR Maggie Jones Maizels SENIOR EDITOR Edward M. Gómez FEATURES EDITOR Nuala Ernest ASSOCIATE EDITOR Natasha Jaeger ACCOUNTS MANAGER Judith Edwards SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Suzy Daniels US ASSISTANT Ari Huff FRENCH EDITOR Laurent Danchin CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Michael Bonesteel, Jenifer P. Borum, Roger Cardinal, Ted Degener, Jo Farb Hernandez, Tom Patterson, Colin Rhodes, Charles Russell ADVERTISING MANAGER Kate Shanley ArtMediaCo, Sales & Marketing 799 Broadway #224 New York, NY 10003 917 804 4642 ArtMediaCompany@gmail.com PUBLISHED by Raw Vision Ltd PO Box 44, Watford WD25 8LN, UK tel +44 (0)1923 853175 email info@rawvision.com website www.rawvision.com
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RAW NEWS Outsider events and exhibitions around the world.
RAW COLLECTING A look at the stunning Bonovitz collection.
HOWARD FINSTER The myths around America’s most celebrated folk artist.
CARLO KESHISHIAN Minutely detailed and hypnotic drawings.
DOMINIC ESPINOZA Colorado veteran’s huge, self-built “castle”.
GERARD SENDREY This key French artiste singulier talks art and inspiration.
STEPHEN WRIGHT House of Dreams, the brightly-mosaiced environment in London.
ALEISTER CROWLEY Paintings by the notorious occultist.
DAVID & MALCAH ZELDIS Two generations of self-taught artists from New York.
RAW STUDIOS Herenplaats studios in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
RAW REVIEWS Exhibitions and events.
GALLERY & MUSEUM GUIDE A round-up of notable venues around the world.
US OFFICE 119 West 72nd Street, #414, New York, NY 10023 (Standard envelopes only) BUREAU FRANÇAIS 37 Rue de Gergovie, 75014 Paris tel +33 (0) 1 40 44 96 46 ISSN 0955-1182 Raw Vision (ISSN 0955-1182) July 2016 is published quarterly (March, June, September, December) by Raw Vision Ltd, PO Box 44, Watford WD25 8LN, UK, and distributed in the USA by Mail Right Inc., 1637 Stelton Road 84, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Periodical Postage Paid at Piscataway, NJ, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address corrections to Raw Vision c/o Mail Right International Inc., 1637 Stelton Road 84, Piscataway, NJ 08854. USA subscription office: 119 72nd Street, #414, New York, NY 10023. (Standard envelopes only).
COVER IMAGE: Howard Finster, Howard in 1944 cutout, tractor enamel on plywood, 21.5" x 13.5", No. 6097, 1987, Girardot/LaBelle Collection, © Finster Estate, photo: Steven Lichak.
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MEDAILLE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
RAWNEWS
FRANCE
PARIS OUTSIDER ART FAIR
HALLE SAINT PIERRE
Oct 22–25 The Outsider Art Fair Paris will hold its third event at a grand new venue, Hotel Du Duc. The Fair will include 36 exhibitors (up from 25) including firsttimers Carl Hammer, Ricco Maresca, Hirschl & Adler from New York and England and Co. from London, as well as selection of galleries from around France.
DADO EXHIBITION
until Oct 31 Strange, colourful animals sculptures can be found in the gardens of the Musée de l’Outil in Les Animaux de Franck Rouilly, Espèces en Voie d’Apparition.
until Sep 27 e Cistercian Abbey is holding a major exhibition on Dado (Miodrag Djuric). For this first retrospective in France, the Abbey of Auberive is showing an exceptional body of 50 works including paintings and sculptures.
Louis Soutter
Franck Rouilly
Dado
Franck Rouilly
until Aug 14 Les Cahiers Dessinés: L’art du dessin continues at Halle Saint Pierre, presenting a wide range of drawings by 67 artists spanning the eighteenth to twenty-first century. Artists include Raphäel Lonné, Louis Soutter, Saul Steinberg and Unica Zürn.
FRANCK ROUILLY
CENTRE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN
HÔTEL DU DUC
DE L’ABBAYE D’AUBERIVE
22 rue de la Michodière, 75002 Paris, FRANCE
HALLE SAINT PIERRE
MUSEE DE L’OUTIL
1, Place de l’abbaye, 52
METROPOLITAN PAVILION
2 Rue Ronsard, 75018
Rue de la Mairie, 95420
160 Auberive (Haute-
125 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011
Paris, FRANCE
Wy-dit-Joli-Village 33
Marne), FRANCE
www.outsiderartfair.com
www.hallesaintpierre.org
FRANCE. www.valdoise.fr
www.abbaye-auberive.com
POLYSÉMIE
HENRY DARGER EXHIBITION IN PARIS
Jun 13 – Jul 11 Recent works by JeanPierre Nadau and Adam Nidzgorski are shown at Polysémie. From July 15 through late August, work by a selection of the gallery’s artists will be shown, including Philippe Azema, Georges Bru and Jean-Pierre Nadau.
until Oct 11 Henry Darger xxx features works donated to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris by the artist’s estate, along with loans from MoMA, New York, the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, and various private collections. Large, double-sided narrative panels, flags, portraits and the three-metre-long e Battle of Calverhine are displayed.
JEDRZEJ CICHOSZ
LES NAUFRAGÉS DU TEMPS
until Oct 4 Promenada features spontaneous painting, sound and performance by Polish artist Jedrzej Cichosz.
Henry Darger
MUSÉE INTERNATIONAL
Philippe Azema
Tabal
Jedrzej Cichosz
Chéri Samba
until Jul 13 Les Naufragés du Temps presents 40 étonnants Créateurs. Includes work by Chéri Samba, Amidou Dossou, Eloï Lokossou and Christian Pinault.
D'ART NAIF ANATOLE-
GALERIE LES
JAKOVSKY
NAUFRAGÉS DU TEMPS
ATELIER POLYSÉMIE
Avenue de Fabron |
4 rue St Thomas, 35400
12 rue de la Cathédrale
MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
Château Sainte Hélène
Saint-Malo, FRANCE
13002 Marseille, FRANCE
11 Avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris FRANCE
06200, Nice, FRANCE
lesnaufragesdutemps.fr
www.polysemie.com
www.mam.paris.fr
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RAWNEWS Jul 6 – 31 New fibre art by Emily Sherwood, Nick Taylor and others will be shown. From August 10–28, see new work by Katrina Cathcart and Brian Lamora.
FOUND/MADE QUILTS Jul 11 – Nov 1 Guest curated by Roderick Kiracofe, Found/Made features vintage and contemporary quilts, some constructed with found materials.
JAMES “SON FORD” THOMAS Jun 9 – Aug 7 James “Son Ford” omas: e Devil and his Blues includes 100 unfired clay objects and is the first intitutional solo presentation of omas’s sculpture to take place since the artist’s death in 1993.
Nick Taylor
Ben Venom
TOP DRAWER
until Jul 11 Melanie Daniel: Piecemaker is a solo exhibition of new paintings by the Canadian-born artist who has lived in Israel for the past 20 years.
Melanie Daniel
MELANIE DANIEL
James “Son Ford” omas
USA
TOP DRAWER ART AT
SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF
SHULAMIT GALLERY
THE BRASS, 16 Cutler
QUILTS & TEXTILES
17 North Venice Blvd.
Street, Warren RI 02885
520 South First Street
80WSE GALLERY
Venice, CA 90291
www.topdrawer.square
San Jose, California 95113
NYU Steinhardt, 80 Washington Square E New York
www.shulamitgallery.com
space.com
www.sjquiltmuseum.org
NY 10003. steinhardt.nyu.edu/80wse
INDIGENOUS BEAUTY
SELF-TAUGHT GENIUS: AFAM TREASURES
GALLERIST JUDY SASLOW RETIRES The highly-respected Chicago gallerist Judy Saslow will retire and close her River North gallery by the end of August 2015, after 20 years. From June 26, an expansive collection of important pieces from the Gallery inventory will be available for sale, continuing through the summer until the doors officially close, no later than August 30. In addition to two-dimensional visual art, the Gallery has an array of tribal and ethnographic artifacts and jewellery collected from around the world.
until Aug 16 Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum continues, exhibiting over 100 outstanding works of art from the Museum’s collection. At Mingei International Museum until August 16.
Henry Darger
Judy Saslow
Anonymous (Tsimshian, British Columbia)
Jul 7 – Sep 13 Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection showcases 120 masterworks of basketry, pottery, sculpture, ivories, kachina dolls, regalia and pictographic arts from tribes across North America.
AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART JUDY A SASLOW GALLERY
3501 Camp Bowie Blvd
MINGEI INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM
300 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654
Fort Worth, TX 76107
Plaza de Panama, Balboa Park, 1439 El Prado, San Diego
www.jsaslowgallery.com
www.cartermuseum.org
CA 92101. www.mingei.org RAW VISION 85
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RAWNEWS
USA
GAYLEEN AIKEN
Sep 3 – Oct 10 Rhizome: New Growth at Cavin-Morris features some new self-taught discoveries and new works by Semone Robinson, Norbert Kox, Angkasapura, Solange Knopf, Christine Sefolosha, Sabhan Adam, Ghyslaine and Sylvain Staelens and others. Current exhibitions Enflamed: New Ceramics and Japan: Art Brut continue until August 29.
Sep 1–30 Luise Ross Gallery is exhibiting the journals of Gayleen Aiken in September. Aiken’s journals organise not only her interior life but her Vermont surroundings as well.
Semone Robinson
Gayleen Aiken
CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY
until Nov 7 Self-Taught, Outsider & Visionary Art from the Permanent Collection showcases works from The Ogden Museum’s growing collection in these fields. Artists include Charles Hutson, Minnie Evans, Arlie Gardens and Thornton Dial.
Rev. McKendree Robbins Long
OGDEN MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART
LUISE ROSS GALLERY CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY
547 West 27 Street #504
925 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
210 Eleventh Avenue, Suite 201, New York, NY 10001
New York, NY 10001
www.ogdenmuseum.org
www.cavinmorris.com
www.luiserossgallery.com
CATHY WARD AT THE GOOD LUCK GALLERY
MARY NOHL’S ART ENVIRONMENT
BETTY ZAKOIAN
Sep 5 – Oct 3 The Good Luck Gallery will host Cathy Ward’s first solo show in Los Angeles. On display will be a selection of Ward’s complex scratchboard drawings and other ethereal works. Ward, from London, UK, recently had her work featured in Raw Vision 85.
e Board of Directors of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center has confirmed its intention to preserve the Mary Nohl home and art at its current Fox Point, Wisconsin, location. JMKAC expects to restore this residential property so that it may exist within the applicable zoning regulations of the Village of Fox Point.
Jul 10 – Sep 26 In Palimpsest, Intuit will feature the vibrant works of Armenian artist Betty Zakoian, who was a survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915.
THE GOOD LUCK GALLERY
Betty Zakoian
Mary Nohl’s Lake Cottage Environment
Cathy Ward
Betty Zakoian
THE OGDEN MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART
INTUIT 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60642
945 Chung King Road, Chinatown, Los Angeles CA 90012 www.thegoodluckgallery.com
www.jmkac.org
www.art.org RAW VISION 86
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RAW COLLECTING
PHILADELPHIA TREASURES - THE JILL AND SHELDON BONOVITZ COLLECTION By SCOTT ROTHSTEIN
O
ver the past thirty years, the Philadelphiabased collectors Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz have acquired many remarkable works by American self-taught artists. Their holdings bring together the creations of numerous masters in the field, most of which the Bonovitzes bought long before these men and women became well known. Among many others, for example, they own pieces by such artists as Eddie Arning, James Castle, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Howard Finster, Lee Godie, William L. Hawkins, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Elijah Pierce, Martín Ramírez, Jon Serl, Bill Traylor, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein and Joseph Yoakum. When asked about the criteria they consider in choosing a piece to add to their collection, their answer is always the same. Jill Bonovitz, an artist herself, says, “It has to resonate with us.” Her mother, Janet Fleisher, was one of the first American dealers to champion outsider art. Jill’s
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husband Sheldon, an attorney, developed an interest in art during his college years. Together the Bonovitzes share a passion and a respect for the kind of art they have long collected. They also have made a strong effort to help change what they see as a common perspective that holds that works made by self-taught artists are somehow less significant than those of their formally trained counterparts. In 2013, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organised and presented "Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection”. The Bonovitzes played an instrumental role in persuading the museum that the artists whose works were featured in that large exhibition were worthy of its attention and consideration. Since then, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz collection has become a promised gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the most important institutions of its kind in the United States.
left Jill and Shelden Bonovitz below left William Hawkins, Boffo below right William Edmondson, Angel bottom left Bill Traylor, Men Drinking, Boys Tormenting, Dogs Barking bottom right John Serl, Musicians opposite page General view of living room including two stone carvings by William Edmondson and Von Buruenchenhein ceramics alongside white vases made by Jill Bonovitz in the shelves.
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THE FINSTER MYTHOS These exclusive extracts from a new book, Envisioning Howard Finster, examine the visionary artist By NORMAN GIRARDOT
O
ne way to examine the nature of the story of Howard Finster (1916–2001) – the simultaneous chaos and order, the fractal patterns, the mythic, and the intertwined religious and artistic – is to look at some of the recurrent themes and images. Then, we can see how they are interrelated and search out their multiple origins in scripture, visionary experience, and all kinds of popular and profane culture. Finster’s sister Abbie, George Washington, Elvis Presley, the Abrahamic Noah, the Holy Ghost, flying saucers, born-again and out-of-body experiences: these were sacred signs in Finster’s personal myth. They were portents and omens from beyond. As much as he declared himself the Second Noah, Finster also proclaimed that he was akin to the patriarch of the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament), Abraham the Stranger (Genesis 23:3–4, and the variations throughout the Hebrew scriptures). King David is also called a “stranger in the earth” in Psalms 119:19. All three (Finster, Abraham and David) were strangers, sojourners or resident aliens on this planet. At times, Finster’s identity as the “stranger from another world” was even more significant than his prophetic role as a latter-day Noah. As Finster became increasingly absorbed in spinning his web of stories, the theme of the stranger most defined his identity as an otherworldly painter of sacred art. As the stranger theme was repeated, from his epiphany in the 1970s [when he saw a face on the tip of his finger that said,
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“Paint sacred art”] and continuing throughout the 1980s, Finster was swept into a vortex of activity and attention that he did not always understand or control. Finster knew that it was necessary to sustain the enthusiasm – his own and that of his fans – that fuelled his growing celebrity and was rooted in the reaction to his charisma and strangeness. As his identity as God’s signpainter took off in increasingly unpredictable ways, Finster may also have been ever more alienated from himself and his former vocations. On the other hand, Finster seemed to know intuitively that his eccentricity had the power of attraction and repulsion. Notoriety, even when negative, was a sign that people were getting the message. Finster’s identity as a stranger was also open-ended in its possible content and meaning. Like the religiouslytinged stories from UFO contactees and more malevolent “alien abduction” tales, Finster’s self-cultivated narrative meshed parts of conventional biblical images with popular enthusiasms and fears, and was embellished with Finster’s own dreams, visions and “Holy Ghost feelings”. Although
above:
Vision of Moddle Structures 1987, tractor enamel on board 53 x 29 ins., 134.6 x 73.7 cm courtesy John Denton
opposite: Emages [sic} of Visions of Other Worlds Beyond 1983, tractor enamel on plexiglass and wood box construction, 27.5 X 20.5 ins., 70 x 52 cm, courtesy Arient Family Collection
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PLOUGHING HIS OWN FURROW Carlo Keshishian’s compulsive drawings tap into the universal soul By DAVID MACLAGAN
I
first came across Carlo Keshishian’s work on the Outside In website a couple of years ago. It struck me, and still strikes me, as having a remarkable intensity. Textures that look like coral reefs or cross-sections of giant trees turn out, on closer inspection, to consist of thousands of miniscule marks: sometimes dots, sometimes denselypacked letters, sometimes closely synchronised blocks of
above: Voiding 2010 ink on card 11.7 x 8.3 ins., 29.7 x 21 cm
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line. It is almost as if the marks are compacted, under some obscure pressure, so that there is a wealth of compressed invention; yet these are sometimes quite large works, that have taken months or years of sustained application to achieve. So it is no surprise to find that Keshishian sometimes works for hours at a stretch (as with many artists, music is an important accompaniment): he told me
opposite page: Unobtainable Realms 2013 ink on canvas 80 x 80 ins., 180 x 180 cm
that to begin with time goes slowly, but that it then accelerates once he is well into the process. Perhaps because I was writing a book about doodling, it came as no surprise to discover that his early work had stemmed from compulsive doodling at school (he was sent to a school for pupils with learning difficulties). These early works have a restless, happenstance feel to them: words, faces and patterns compete with one another, as if in some visual equivalent of background noise. But where other doodlers might have left off, it is as if Keshishian could not or would not stop; in fact, he was told to do his doodles on separate bits of paper from his class work. Sheets of words followed, in something like a colourful version of a stream of consciousness, with letters expanding and shrinking to fill the available space, but still easily legible. These are almost the raw ingredients of his later work, but they are still too close to the surface, perhaps more like private graffiti.
In 1997 Keshishian started a 2-year B-Tech (Bachelor of Technology) course in Art and Design at West Thames College: this was the point at which he began to turn his classroom doodles into larger works. At this point his drawings were still largely based on writing. A work like Picture Worth 1000 Words (1998–99) was written/drawn directly onto canvas, as were his early “Diary” drawings. They could be seen as a peculiar form of transcription: in fact, the text for his later “Diary” drawings (2010 onwards) was written first on a PC and then drawn, changes in the colour of the computerised text enabling him to keep track of where he was and avoiding it getting too far ahead of the drawing. Obviously the dense furrows of text in the drawing are far less easily legible: it is almost as if these diary entries, which are quite frank descriptions of events in his life, have been buried or obscured; or rather, they are there, but the process of their inscription have turned them into something like pictures of writing (and behind that, of
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PURE OF HEART South of the Rio Grande in Colorado, a sanctuary is growing By FRED SCRUTON
T
wisted wire-formed letters near the top spell “Jesus Cristo”, and sometimes, when Dominic Espinoza “looks real close” at his castle, he sees the face of crucified Jesus looking back. He built in no such anthropomorphic features, but to his eyes the castle becomes an acheiropoieton (created without human hands) – a three-storey, embossed metal icon image of Christ. Embodying the vision he sees of Jesus “when he had his thorns on”, his head and shoulders slump and then, as if having described a fleeting vision of the Veil of Veronica rippling in the Colorado breezes, he looks up. “I have a different image of the castle; we call it ‘the castle’, but still its something that God made, he just used me, I can’t explain it.” After first digging an underground potato cellar on the site, the castle began in 1980 when Cano built a steam room above the cellar, and took improvised shape as found materials presented themselves over about 20 years. “[I] just followed where one board ends, looking at it, and imagining the board is gonna throw me this way – oh, I think that looks good – I’ll just follow that.” Espinoza calls the taller, rounder of the central towers “the King”, and its amply-crowned angular consort, “the Queen”.
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All photos by Fred Scruton. Round, window eyes and a triangular-shaped “nose” made of hubcaps form the face of the “Knight” structure in front of the northern “Queen” tower. Message-bearing “arrows from heaven” flank circles of purity in front of the “King,” the southern tower. The low, adjacent “Rook” building is to the left
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THE INNER UNKNOWN, AND THE JOY OF LIFE
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Gerard Sendrey channels everyday visions and experiences in his art By NINA KATSCHNIG
previous page: Composition 2001 Indian ink on paper 12.6 x 9.5 ins. 32.1 x 24.1 cm right: The Nonformation of the World 2002 Indian ink 16.5 x 11.7 ins. 42 x 29.6 cm
L
eonardo Da Vinci’s motto, nulla die sine linea [no day without a line] is also Gerard Sendrey’s motto. Born in 1928 in Bordeaux, France, Sendrey strived to express himself creatively from early childhood. He worked as a city clerk, and from his 39th year onwards spent all of his free time drawing and painting. The oeuvre he has now produced is prolific and multifaceted, and its absolute selfreliance bears testimony to a free and creative spirit. At first, Sendrey’s unconditional need to create served to calm him; it contained him, made him feel safe and let his
existence appear meaningful. The creative process lifted his spirits. Today, he takes great pleasure in drawing and painting. He enjoys the feeling of getting in touch with his interior “unknown”, engaging with it and bringing it forth in his own highly personal way. Sendrey’s preferred method of expression is drawing: impulsively, with his eyes open or shut, he uses his right or left hand to make marks in a simplistic manner, and he surprises himself with the result of his spontaneity and the shapes that emerge. He uses various materials, such as chalk, Indian ink, coloured pencils, RAW VISION 86
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STEPHEN WRIGHT’S HOUSE OF DREAMS In South London, one man’s mosaic and objet trouvé creations jostle for attention By KATE DAVEY
“D
ear World. In the beginning when I was a child, I knew I had something special to say. Something I wanted to share with the world. I was never very clever with words. The use of them never really expressed what I wanted to say. So I turned to colour and pattern, which seemed to do the job so much better. I immersed myself in their use, and discovered my own language. I could now explore my fascination with vibrant colour contrasts and unusual images.” Stephen Wright (b. 1954) is a London-based artist and former textile designer who, for the past 16 years, has been creating a House of Dreams in East Dulwich. This enormous endeavour started back in 1999 with his former partner Donald Jones, and was born from research trips to numerous visionary environments such as the Maison Picassiette of Raymond Isidore (1900–1964) in Chartres, 48
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France – a place that Wright now visits at least every other year for fresh inspiration and to feel a closer affinity with those following the same path as himself. The sprawling project was equally born from Wright’s desire to create something permanent. Having worked as a fashion, knitwear and stationery designer for many years prior to the conception of the House of Dreams, he wanted a change from the ephemeral nature of his former life; we use a piece of wrapping paper, we throw it away. The house, bequeathed as it is to the National Trust, will be his personal legacy. This urge to create something of permanence was perhaps heightened following the death of Jones and both of Wright’s parents three years into the start of the project. Although Wright took a short break from his work on the house following his bereavement, he eventually returned to
it, finding that it provided an outlet for healing and dealing with what had happened. He realised that it was something he needed to do for himself. Within the house, Wright has created a ‘new’ family – not to replace the one he lost, but to create a sense of solace and belonging; something he is a part of, the creator of. Wright is very honest about the house and what it means to him, and the almost love-hate relationship he battles with. He compares the building of the museum to the building of an intimate human relationship, or like feeding a baby that’s never full up. His sculptures, his assemblages – they are his babies. The magic starts in the front garden, entered through a high bolted gate and encircled by a tall wall that enables Wright to shut himself away from the world when he needs to. On later reflection, the hallway inside embodies a slightly different mood to the rest of the museum. Text
scrawled across the walls conveys very personal messages taken straight from the pages of Wright’s own diary. This, paired with black floorboards provides a more sombre atmosphere than the mosaic of bright plastics, the reemployed bottles and containers, and the baby-faced dolls found further on. Journeying inside, the space physically swells with personal stories embodied in the discarded objects of everyday life. Not just those of Wright and his family, but of strangers, or of visitors to the house. Wright has found that more recently, people knock at the front door with a personal deposit to make; one even delivering his wife’s ashes. The house has become a depositary for DNA (hair wrapped around rollers); for cherished belongings of late loved ones. Wright has noted that when he walks through the space, he often catches the smell of its inhabitants: RAW VISION 86
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WHEN ART MET MAGICK
T
he British-born occultist, ceremonial magician, poet and painter Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) has never been as well known for his artistic pursuits as for his more esoteric interests, for which he was dubbed the “wickedest man in the world” by the British tabloids. Based on diaries, photographs and catalogues, it is believed that Crowley produced some 300 works of art, only a fraction of which have survived. While he was alive, only one major exhibition of his art was presented, in 1931, in Berlin. It featured 73 works. Over the past decade, several exhibitions of Crowley’s art have taken place in Paris, London and Venice, and in Australia. Together, they have prompted some serious reappraisal of his art. 54
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Crowley’s significance as an artist lies in his reconsideration of art as a central component in his magical theory of the universe and, in particular, its ability to awaken, as he put it, “our Secret Self – our Subconscious Ego, whose magical Image is our individuality expressed in mental and bodily form”. Brought up in England’s West Midlands region, where his well-to-do family followed the Plymouth Brethren, Crowley’s first understanding was that painting was a form of moralist decoration and, despite his mother and aunt having been painters, he was left feeling, as he wrote in his diary, “ignorant of the existence of anything of the sort beyond Landseer’s Dignity and Impudence.” (Sir Edwin
The British occultist, spiritualist and painter Aleister Crowley brought many interests together in his exploration of the subconscious By ROBERT BURATTI
previous page: Aleister Crowley, posing in ceremonial robe, England, 1910 above left: Cock and Serpent, 1920, oil on canvas, 23.6 x 11.8 ins., 60 x 30 cm
above: The Hierophant (study for the tarot card), 1920, oil on board, 9.5 x 7.5 ins., 24.2 x 19 cm left: Ladies of the Liberal Club, 1918, watercolour, 23.6 x 15.7 ins., 60 x 40cm All paintings courtesy of Ordo Templi Orientis
Henry Landseer was a nineteenth-century painter known for his pictures of animals and his sculptures of lions in London’s Trafalgar Square). In 1898, while studying at Cambridge University, Crowley met graduate Gerald Kelly who shared his interests in magic and writing, and would influence his development. For Crowley, art was not about replicating observed subjects but about expression. He noted, “one should not paint ‘Nature’ at all; one should paint the Will.” In 1908, Crowley travelled to Paris and rubbed shoulders with artists such as Man Ray and Jacob Epstein. In his 1929 autobiography, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography, he remembered, “as luck
would have it, I had arrived in Paris on an occasion which history in France can hardly duplicate.” The Realist and Romantic movements of the early nineteenth century had given way to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. An influence on early Impressionism was the intimation, however subtle, that there existed a form of unseen light or energy permeating the world. Crowley even embarked on a collaboration with Auguste Rodin, and in the 1940s, back in England during World War II, he would include the “right to mould as he will” in Liber Oz, a proclamation of human rights, which he wrote and issued in 1941 in support of the war effort, declaring artistic expression to be part of the core of humankind’s freedom. RAW VISION 86
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IN NEW YORK, A MOTHER– SON, SELF-TAUGHT DUO
David Zeldis Lovers in the Clouds 2012 pencil and coloured pencil on paper 10 x 7 ins. 25.4 x 17.7 cm
A
ged 83, American self-taught artist Malcah Zeldis is still going strong. Born in New York and brought up in Detroit, Michigan, her father, who died in 1980, was a Sunday painter who inspired his daughter to make art. In turn, Malcah influenced her son David Zeldis: he has become known for his spare, elegant drawings of pencil or coloured pencil and crayon on paper. 54
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Malcah Zeldis has produced colourful oil paintings and smaller gouaches that depict American holiday parades and Miss America contests; famous people, especially artists; her political idol, Abraham Lincoln; events from her own life; Jewish-themed scenes; and fantasy subjects. In recent years, Malcah has branched out and begun to make assemblage sculptures, too.
Malcah Zeldis, a painter and maker of assemblage sculpture, and her son, David, have given form to very different sensibilities By N. F. KARLINS
above: David Zeldis, Starry Sky, 1983–84, coloured pencil on paper, 9 x 12 ins., 22.7 x 30.5 cm below: David Zeldis, Ecce Homo, 1971, graphite on paper, 4.5 x 10.5 ins., 11.4 x 26.7 cm David Zeldis images courtesy of Hirschl & Adler Modern RAW VISION 86
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RAW STUDIOS
ATELIER HERENPLAATS, NETHERLANDS By EVA VON STOCKHAUSEN and NUALA ERNEST
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or 23 years, Rotterdam’s Herenplaats studio has been championing the work of artists with developmental disabilities and psychiatric conditions through their professional, autonomous visual arts programme. Herenplaats studio and gallery occupy a two-story building in Rotterdam’s Witte de With art district. At Herenplaats workshop, 37 artists with developmental disabilities or (since 2007) psychiatric conditions work daily – drawing, painting and creating graphic art at their permanent workstations. “We encourage people to come in at least three days a week, that way it’s work experience and not just a hobby”, says veteran mentor Richard Benaars who, like the other mentors, gives the artists bespoke tutoring and is aware of the thin line between providing
support and guiding – a line the mentors are determined not to cross. “Only by respecting the individual creator’s artistic freedom can we learn what truly inspires them”, says fellow mentor Frits Gronert. Herenplaats promotes a philosophy that centres on artistic freedom. As Benaars explains, “Our practice is based on four pillars: the artists’ talent and motivation, professional tutoring, the availability of high-quality working materials and the right to education.” Whether it is the dynamic townscapes of Jaco Kranendonk, Ben Augustus’s obsessive reproductions of cheap erotic material, or the dramatic proportions of Hein Dingemans’s aboriginal beefcake heroes, Herenplaats artists are free to develop their own unique imagery. In that respect, they are far less “pliable” than regular art students; they usually will not tolerate being told what to depict or what materials to use. Benaars says, “Collaborations with professional artists, with the ‘professional’ setting the tone and the ‘outsider’ expected to operate in the margins of the joint project, therefore often aren’t very meaningful.” The Herenplaats arts centre was founded in 1991 by the Pameijer Foundation and started out with eight participating artists, two mentors, and a few drawing boards and easels. However, from an early stage it aimed for a level of professionalism and autonomy that was then unknown in the Dutch care system. Part of the pursuit of greater autonomy has been the establishment of Herenplaats’s gallery in 1994, which currently hosts four or five temporary exhibitions each year and sells the artists’ works at competitive prices. Since it started, Herenplaats has initiated and participated in art projects in the Netherlands and abroad. above: Paulus de Groot, Anna-Maria, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 39.4 x 27.5 ins., 100 x 70 cm left: Livia Dencher, Untitled, 2009, mixed media on canvas, 31.5 x 31.5 ins., 80 x 80 cm opposite, below left: Louise Guardia, Untitled, 2005, 39.4 x 31.5 ins., 100 x 80 cm
above left: Hein Dingemans, Untitled, 2000, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 39.4 ins., 150 x 100 cm above right: Jeroen Pomp, Verkeer (Traffic), 2010, coloured pencil on paper, 17.7 x 57.5 ins., 45 x 70 cm; below right: Coen Ringeling, Línvasion de Metropolis, pencil and ink on paper, 19.8 x 25.6 ins., 50 x 65 cm. All images courtesy Herenplaats
other local cultural institutions. Frits Gronert says, “More than anything, we would like to try and retain a place where our artists can keep coming to express themselves through their art. And, of course, we want to continue promoting this art.”
Its gallery has hosted and (co-)curated over 100 temporary exhibitions, presenting works by its own artists and by other international outsider-initiatives including Galerie Gugging (Vienna, 2010), the Kunstwerkstatt Waldau (Bern, 2010), Japanese studios Suzukake, Shigaraki, Kai and Tanpopo-no-ie (2000), and Creativity Explored (California, 1999). For the series “Who Am I” (2006–11), Herenplaats collaborated with 12 educational institutions including the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, the École Nationale Supérieur des Beaux Arts, Paris, and the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Herenplaats has also published 17 catalogues, monographs and essays. Over the years, its mentors have given numerous presentations and lectures worldwide on the Herenplaats working-model, which has inspired many similar programmes. However, all this could change in the near future as a result of an overhaul of the Dutch healthcare system and the modernisation of the complete day-care programme of the Pameijer Foundation in 2015. This implies an uncertain future for all involved, including participants in the Herenplaats art programme, as people will be re-examined to assess their suitability for the labour market and reintegration into society. The Herenplaats studio and gallery could well be relocated and merged with
Galerie Atelier Herenplaats, Schiedamse Vest 56–58, 3011 BD, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. http://www.herenplaats.nl Eva von Stockhausen is an Amsterdam-based freelance journalist and web-editor, specialising in Outsider Art. Nuala Ernest is Features Editor at Raw Vision and Assistant Editor at the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health.
RAWREVIEWS Astral Eyes
EXHIBITIONS
Walter Russell
THE VISIONARY EXPERIENCE Saint Francis to Finster American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM), Baltimore, Maryland 4 October 2014 – 30 August 2015
ingo Swann
Independent filmmaker and publisher Jodi Wille served as co-curator for AVAM’s twentieth annual thematic exhibition, focused on the experience at the heart of visionary creation. Wille and AVAM’s founder/director Rebecca Hoffberger assembled an eclectic, stimulating mix of art, illustrations and documentary material that addresses and/or manifests the visionary experience. It all adds up to a fascinating, entertaining inquiry into the nature of consciousness itself. Powerfully introducing the proceedings are four dazzling oil paintings by Ingo Swann (1933–2013), mounted in the well of the museum’s spiral staircase. These crisply delineated, luminescent panoramas portray entities and otherworldly vistas revealed to Swann in his “remote viewing” experiences. His controversial reputation in the field of psychic research has overshadowed his work as a painter, which clearly deserves more attention. 66
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Another frequent practitioner of remote viewing – although he didn’t use that term – was Howard Finster (1915–2002), who painted his “visions of other worlds beyond the light of the sun.” Name-checked in the exhibition’s subtitle, Finster is represented here by a substantial show-within-the-show, a dense, richly varied installation of paintings, drawings, “thought cards” and other works from different phases of his career. Co-curator Wille has recently been documenting alternative spiritual communities founded in the late twentieth century, and some of this material is appropriately featured in the exhibition. Of particular interest are her in-depth documentary film The Source Family – about a well-known hippie commune in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s – and a display of ritual garments, homemade films and other artifacts from an older Los Angeles group called the Unarius Academy of Science, founded in the early 1950s and still extant. Other highlights include Paolo Soleri’s utopian architectural drawings; Paul Koudounaris’ exquisite photographs of bejeweled, sacred skeletons; a murky gathering of spiritlike beings drawn by Christine Sefolosha; and Norbert Kox’s painted
Christine Sefolosha
John Keely Dale Pond Caroline McManus
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illustration of a Divine System of Spontaneous Generation. Surprises include plastic sculptures of complex geometric forms by actor Terrence Howard, and several informal sketches by Jimi Hendrix (whose visionary ideas were far more effectively expressed in his music).
This show could certainly have been much larger and included works by many more artists, designers and other visionaries. Such is often the case with AVAM’s thematic shows, which are invariably ambitious in addressing big, complex subjects. Tom Patterson RAW VISION 86
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Franck K. Lundangi
Sylvain and Ghyslaine Staelens
EXHIBITIONS
Anna Zemánková
30 YEARS AT CAVINMORRIS In Dreams Begin Responsibilities Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York February 19 – March 21, 2015 Shari Cavin and Randall Morris, the founders of Cavin-Morris, have long been interested, as Morris recently pointed out, “more in art as an ongoing process for its makers and in the purposes for which certain creations have been made than in works that are produced primarily as art objects as such”. Thus, this gallery’s exhibitions have called attention not only to the formal and technical aspects of a diverse range of art forms but also to the compelling urge to create that seems to have motivated the making of the powerfully expressive works it has presented over the years. Many were made by talented autodidacts for their own deeply personal needs or sometimes for ritualistic purposes in religiousspiritual contexts. Highlights of this show included drawings by various Czech artists, who skillfully rendered in pencil, ink, pastel or
Gregory Van Maanen
other media abstract forms resembling flowers or plants. Among them: Anna Zemánková, Cecilie Markova, an anonymous artist and Karel Havlíek, whose black-and-white images showed stylised plant and animal forms, such as a serpent’s head or that of an insect, magnified, in superbly shaded detail. The Indonesian artist Noviadi Angkasapura’s colourful ink-andwatercolour drawings on found paper are one of the gallery’s recent finds. Here they were filled with lurking, strutting or parading phantom
creatures and dense compositions whose organic shapes appeared to grow out of and fold back into themselves. Larger in scale, the Angolan-born Franck K. Lundangi’s paintings in acrylic pigment, ink and/or watercolour on paper depicted enigmatic figures that appeared to symbolise supernatural powers or mythical themes. The American Gregory Van Maanen’s small, acrylicon-board abstractions felt like visual talismans. The Japanese artist Yohei Nishimura made “ceramic” sculptures of books by placing actual books in a kiln and allowing their natural silica content to be affected by heat before they could burn. Cavin-Morris’s anniversary show included indigenous-culture sculptures, masks and ceramic works from Africa, Mexico, Nepal, Japan and other regions. All of the objects on view, in resonant dialogue with each other formally or technically, offered visitors a strong sense of the aesthetic values that have long inspired this noteworthy gallery’s curatorial vision. Edward M. Gómez Yohei Nishimura RAW VISION 86
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Art Brut Dubuffet, Art Cars, Definitions, Lonnie Holley, Abbé Fouré, Ray Morris
Billy Lemming, Huichol, Australian Outsiders, Art of the Homeless
von Bruenchenhein, Imagists, Monsiel, McKesson, Mabussa, Vahan Poladian
Joe Coleman, Minnie Evans, Seillé, Peploe, Papa, Canadian Environments
La Cathedral, Hauser, Norbert Kox, Zemankova, Anita Roddick, Laffoley
Gugging, Art & Psychiatry, Traylor, M-J Gil, De Stadshof, Margaret’s Grocery
Salvation Mountain, Yoakum, Dos Santos, Scottish Outsiders, Bartlett
Ossorio, Irish Naïves, Nick Blinko, Ray Materson, Le Carré Galimard
Adolf Wölfli, Art Cars Zeldis, Albert Louden, Cellblock Visions
Sudduth Burgess Dulaney, St EOM, Mouly, Dulaney, Mr Eccles, SPACES
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Rio Museum, Voodoo,Carvers of Poland, Naïves of Taiwan, E. James
Ben Wilson, Inner Architecture, Fasanella, Phase 2, Fryar, Gordon’s Patio
Y5/P5, Chomo, Arning, Leonov, Kaiser, The Tarot Garden, Gene Merritt
Mary Proctor, Carlo Zinelli, Dernier Cri, Art Brut, Jersey Shell Garden
Picassiette, Benefiel, Vodou, Dellscahu, Mediumistic, Van Genk
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Alex Grey, Lacemaker, Art & Madness, Luna Rossa, Sekulic, Lee Godie, Uddin, Mary Nohl Palace Depression, Saban, Benavides
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William Thomas Thompson, Alfred Wallis, Johnny Meah, Michael Rapanakis
Dr. Leo Navratil, Ilija Bosilj, Simon Sparrow, Melvin Way, Pradeep Kumar
Nek Chand, Finster, Valton Tyler, LaraGomez, P.Humphrey, War Rugs, Lonné
Van Genk, Purvis Young, Marcel Storr, RA Miller, Madge Gill, Makiki
Watts Towers, Bessy Harvey, Marginalia, F. Monchâtre, Tree Circus
Palais Idéal, J. Scott, Charles Russell Donald Pass, Outsider portraits
43 Thornton Dial, Richard Greaves, Martha Grunenwaldt
56 Maura Holden, Clarence Schmidt R.A. Miller, Hans Krüsi, Silvio Barile
66 Philly/K8, Sefolosha, Palmer, Belardinelli, Ludwiczac, Oscar’s sketchbook
76 CJ Pyle, Aloïse Corbaz, Mr Imagination, John Danczyszak
44 Theo, Jane-in-Vain, Janet Sobel, Lanning Garden
57 Burning Man, Matsumoto, Nicholas Herrera, William Fields
45 William Hawkins, Expressionism and Insanity, Giovanni Battista Podesta
58 Lobonov, Zindato, JB Murray, Anthony Jadunath, Seymour Rosen
46 Finnish Outsiders, Sylvain Fusco, Roy Ferdinand
59 Emery Blagdon, ZB Armstrong, Bali, Imppu (Finland), Mari Newman
48 Hung Tung, Photography, Bernard Schatz, Jessie Montes
6 Tom Duncan, Movie Posters, Spanish Sites, Rosa Zharkikh
49 Mammi Wata, Fred Ressler, Mary Whitfield, Isaiah Zagar
61 Sam Doyle, Myrtice West, Lost In Time, Romanenkov
Darger, R/stone Cowboy, Thévoz: Chiaroscuro, Pearl Blauvelt, Bressse
5 Hamtramck Disney, Roger Cardinal, Ken Grimes, Criminal Tattoos
62 S.L. Jones, Kevin Duffy, Frank Jones, Charles Steffen
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Eli Jah, Singleton, Marie-Rose Lortet, Ross Brodar, Catalan site
51 August Natterer, New Gugging, George Widener, Paul Hefti
63 Howard Finster, Michel Nedjar, James H Jennings, Rosemarie Koczy
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Mary T Smith, de Villiers, Matt Lamb, Old Curiosity Shop, Mithila Painters
Robert Tatin, N-M Rowe, McQuirk, Denise Allen, Freddie Brice
41 G. Aiken, Junkerhaus, Kurt Haas, P Lancaster, Minnie Evans
52 Ivan Rabuzin, Czech Art Brut, Sunnyslope, Prophet Blackmon
64 Joe Coleman, Harald Stoffers, Elis F. Stenman
42 Boix-Vives, Fred Smith, Rosa Zharkikh, Donald Mitchell
53 Toraja Death Figures, Chauvin Sculptures Josef Wittlich, Nigerian Sculpture
65 Speller, Norbert Kox, Haiti street art BF Perkins Damian Michaels
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Paul Amar, Phyllis Kind, D.M. Diaz, W. Dawson, Joe Minter, Survivors, Martindale
Colin McKenzie, Eugene Andolsek, Surrealism/Madness, INSITA, Churchill D
Electric Pencil, Gugging, JJ Cromer River Plate Voodoo
Mario Mesa, Tim Lewis, Joel Lorand, Chelo Amezcua, Clayton Bailey
Masao Obata, Takeshi Shuji, Henriette Zéphir, John Toney, Edward Adamson
Dalton Ghetti, Art & Disability, Danielle Jacqui, Andrei Palmer, Mingering Mike
Henry Darger, Peter Kapeller, Nadia Thornton Dial, Belykh
August Walla, Adolf Wölfli, Antoni Gaudi, Tim Wehrle, Frank Walter, Art & Therapy
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Martin Ramirez, Bruce New, Stephanie Lucas, Ellen Greene, Art in Houston
Mark Beyer, Howard Finster, Veijo Ronkkonen, Alexis Lippstreu
Alex Grey, Hiroyuki Doi, Josef Karl Radler, Ferdinand Cooper, Patrick Joyce
Prophet Isaiah Robertson, SchröderSonnenstern, Madge Gill, John Gilmoour
67 Renaldo Kuhler, Sonabai, Outsider Films, Giov Bosco, Finster/Ginsberg
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Bill Traylor, Art Brut Today, Meta Doodles, Billy Tripp, Gugging, Zoran Tanasic
Dernier Cri, Rei Kawakubo, Bonifacio, Blackstock, St. EOM, Porret-Forel
Julian Martin, Ronald Lockett, Solange Knopf, Larry Lewis, Emma Hauck
Nek Chand, Johann Fischer, Judith Scott, George Ehling, Spanish Environments