Raw Vision 99 by Raw Vision

RAWVISION99 AUTUMN/FALL 2018

EDITOR John Maizels DIRECTORS Henry Boxer, Robert Greenberg, Audrey Heckler, Rebecca Hoffberger, Phyllis Kind, Frank Maresca, Marilyn Oshman, Richard Rosenthal, Bob Roth ART EDITOR Maggie Jones Maizels SENIOR EDITOR Edward M. Gómez FEATURES EDITOR Nuala Ernest ASSOCIATE EDITOR Natasha Jaeger ASSISTANT EDITOR Mariella Landolfi DESIGN Terrayne Brown EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Suifan Adey ACCOUNTS MANAGER Judith Edwards SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Suzy Daniels CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Michael Bonesteel, Jenifer P. Borum, Roger Cardinal, Ted Degener, Jo Farb Hernandez, Tom Patterson, Colin Rhodes, Charles Russell, Daniel Wojcik PUBLISHED by Raw Vision Ltd Letchmore Heath 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

FAREWELLS Julio Basanta and David Philpot

LARRY HARVEY Tribute to the founder of Burning Man

NORBERT KOX Apocalyptic visionary opens his new museum

OWL HOUSE Helen Martins’ environment in South Africa

KWAME AKOTO Ghanian artist known as Almighty God

JOSEP BAQUÉ The Monsters of Imagination

SHAO BINGFENG The memories of an elderly Chinese artist

WILHELM WERNER Disturbing documentation of Nazi sterilisation

RAW REVIEWS Exhibitions and events

GALLERY & MUSEUM GUIDE Notable venues around the world

ISSN 0955-1182

COVER IMAGE: Norbert Kox, Stone House, (detail) 2016, acrylic on canvas, 69.5 x 27.5 ins, / 176 cm x 69 cm painted during Artist Residency at Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea Raw Vision (ISSN 0955-1182) September 2018 is published quarterly (March, June, September, December) by Raw Vision Ltd, PO Box 44, Watford WD25 8LN, UK, and distributed in the USA by UKP Worldwide, 3390 Rand Road, South Plainfield, NJ 07080. Periodicals postage paid at South Plainfield, NJ. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Raw Vision c/o 3390 Rand Road, South Plainfield, NJ 07080, and additional mailing offices.

Raw Vision cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited material. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Raw Vision.

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM VISIONARY AWARD

WORLD’S BEST ART MAGAZINE

UTNE INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD

MEDAILLE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS

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AUSTRIA, BRITAIN

HOUSE OF DREAMS

JENNIFER LAUREN

Jasna Nikolic

Alexander Gorlizki

At gugging galerie from September 28 through November 12, “living a dream...” features works by Alexander Gorlizki alongside a selection from his “Magic Markings” collection of early Indian mystical and vernacular drawings, as well as works by current and past gugging artists. In philipp schöpke.!, showing October 26 through March 31, museum gugging presents an extensive compilation of the artist’s oeuvre. GALERIE & MUSEUM GUGGING Am Campus 2, A-3400 Maria Gugging AUSTRIA. www.gugging.com

Stephen Wright’s House of Dreams

OUTSIDE IN Sep 19 – Nov 23

Dr Vawdrey at a public event

GUGGING Sep 28 – Nov 12 and Oct 26 – Mar 31

West Sussex Record Office and Outside In have been awarded a grant of £46,023 by the Wellcome Trust to preserve the Vawdrey Archive, which comprises 194 paintings produced by people in art therapy sessions run by Dr Brian Vawdrey between 1951 and 1971, and a copy of Vawdrey’s illustrated thesis, Art in Analysis. This funding will enable the Record Office, in partnership with Outside In, to catalogue, preserve and digitise this archive, eventually making the catalogue and images available online. Outside In: Discover, hosted in the unique setting of Cerno Capital, offers the opportunity to discover the work of three Outside In artists: Jasna Nikolic, Nnena Kalu and Rakibul Chowdhury. Viewings by appointment only. Contact Isobel Camm: isobel@cernocapital.com, 020 7036 4110. CERNO CAPITAL, 34 Sackville Street, London, W1S 3ED, UK. outsidein.org

Steve Wright’s House of Dreams will open to visitors on Oct 27 and Nov 24, 10am–5pm (booking is essential). THE HOUSE OF DREAMS 45 Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich, London SE22 8RG, UK. stephenwrightartist.com

VENTURE ARTS

CATHY WARD

THE GALLERY OF EVERYTHING

Oct – Feb

Oct 5–27

Sep 23 – Nov 11

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Eighty learning disabled artists will occupy several contemporary and historical settings across Greater Manchester in PERSPECTIVES, a series of exhibitions, happenings and creative exchanges presented by Venture Arts. www.venturearts.org

Abu Mansaray

Cathy Ward

Thoughts and Utterances: Threading together the narrative of life presents works by Ben Wilson (UK), Garrol Gayden (LAND Gallery, New York) and Robert Fischer (Geyso20, Germany). Pop-Up Gallery, 20 Arlington Way, London, EC1R 1UY. jenniferlaurengallery.com

Andrew Johnstone (left) and Ahmed Mohammed (right)

Garrol Gayden

Oct 25–28

Cathy Ward‘s UK debut of her 23-foot long Phantasmata painting, animated film Realm, plus older and new works. THE HORSE HOSPITAL, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD, UK. thehorsehospital.com catharyneward.com

ART + REVOLUTION IN HAITI explores the mutual influence of Surrealism and self-taught art, following André Breton’s visit to the island in 1945. Early works by Castera Bazile, Wilson Bigaud, Hector Hyppolite, Georges Liautaud and Robert Saint-Brice occupy three venues, including The Gallery of Everything from Sep 23 – Nov 11, Frieze Masters in Regents Park (Booth F16) from Oct 3–7 and the 1–54 Contemporary African Art Fair London (Booth S2) from Oct 3–7. GALLERY OF EVERYTHING, Chiltern St, Marylebone, London W1U 7PS, UK. www.gallevery.com

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FRANCE, GERMANY

DEIDI VON SCHAEWEN

Sep 26 – Nov 30

PAUL AMAR

KUNSTHAUS KANNEN

until Nov 3

Oct 14 – Jan 27

The sixth edition of the Outsider Art Fair in Paris will take place at a new venue: Atelier Richelieu, located in the 2nd Arrondissement. The Fair will present 37 exhibitors from 18 cities and ten countries. New galleries include Artpool Project (Paris), Copenhagen Outsider Art Gallery, Galerie Atelier Herenplaats (Rotterdam, NL) and Tak gallery (Poznań, PL). Art Absolument Prize for Outsider Art will award €10,000 to a living artist at the fair. ATELIER RICHELIEU, 60 Rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris, FRANCE. outsiderartfair.com 6

CREATIVE GROWTH

DETTINGERMAYER

Oct 18–21

Nov 2–24

Chris Corr-Barbaras

Outsider Art Fair, Paris,2018

Oct 18–21

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In the 21st annual exhibition, 300 paintings and objects created by outsider artists at the studios of the Kunsthaus Kannen will be presented. KUNSTHAUS KANNEN Alexianerweg 9, D-48163 Münster, GERMANY. kunsthaus-kannen.de

At the Outsider Art Fair in Paris, Creative Growth (Oakland, CA) will present work by Alice Wong, David Parsons, Donald Mitchell, Dwight Mackintosh, Latefa Noorzai, Dan Miller and Chris Corr-Barberis. www.creativegrowth.org

PRINZHORN Oct 11 – Jan 20

Heinrich L.

OUTSIDER ART FAIR, PARIS

Paul Amar used painted shells with nail varnish, glitter and mica to create lavish sculptures. Musée des Arts Buissonniers is showing special and unfinished pieces and also the tools Amar used to produce his work. MUSÉE DES ARTS BUISSONNIERS Rue de l’Église, 12370 Saint-Sever-du-Moustier, FRANCE. artsbuissonniers.com

Kunsthaus Kannen artists

Femmes Peintres du Hazaribagh presents Deidi von Schaewen’s photographs of walls painted by women of the tribes of Hazaribagh, India. Deidi von Schaewen created the Women of Hazaribagh association to raise funds to allow artists to revive and continue this threatened ancestral tradition. ENSA PARIS-MALAQUAIS Espace Callot, 1 rue Jacques Callot 75006 Paris, FRANCE. paris-malaquais.archi.fr

Ghislaine Teyssier

Au-delà des Murs (Beyond Walls): Exposition Internationale d’art créé en prison features artworks from 20 countries selected by German association Art and Prison e.V. and selected by Art et Prison France. Showing at LE PARVIS DE SAINT-NAZAIRE Sep 26 – Oct 18; MAIRIE DU 3ÈME ARRDT DE PARIS Oct 22 – Nov 10; AND HÔTEL DE RÉGION STRASBOURG Nov 21–30. https://art-et-prison.fr

Paul Amar

Anonymous

Deidi von Schaewen

Oct 7 – Dec 3

Galerie Dettinger-Mayer will show drawings and photography by Evelyne Postic and Caprio until Sep 29. In November, see drawings by Ghislaine Teyssier, and in December drawings by Christelle Lenci. GALERIE DETTINGER-MAYER 4 place Gailleton, 69002 Lyon, FRANCE.

Travelling exhibition Extraordinaire! Unknown Works from Swiss Psychiatric Institutions around 1900 shows newly discovered works. PRINZHORN COLLECTION Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Voßstraße 2, 69115 Heidelberg, GERMANY. sammlung-prinzhorn.de

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USA

CAVINMORRIS

until Oct 28

until Nov 3

In collaboration with Dos Folkies Gallery, Inside Outside includes pieces by outsider artists including Mose Tolliver, Mytrice West and Richard Burnside, alongside local artists. CRESCENDA GALLERY 9321 N.E. State Highway 104, Kingston, WA 98346. crescendagallery.com

J.B. Murray

Bill Traylor

Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor is the first major retrospective ever organised for an artist born into slavery, and the most comprehensive look at Bill Traylor’s work to date, featuring 155 of Traylor’s most important paintings and drawings. SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20004. americanart.si.edu

Featuring works by some of the foremost self-taught artists of the 20th century – including Thornton Dial, Howard Finster, Bessie Harvey, William L. Hawkins, Mary T. Smith, Jimmy Lee Sudduth and Purvis Young – Expressions Unbound celebrates the recent gift from Tufts and Fletcher alumnus Andrew and Linda Safran. TUFTS UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY Aidekman Arts Center, Tufts University, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA 02155. artgallery.tufts.edu

INSIDE OUTSIDE

Craig Rogers

TUFTS UNIVERSITY until Dec 16

Thornton Dial

TRAYLOR AT SMITHSONIAN Sep 28 – Mar 17

Cavin-Morris Gallery presents Eagle Crossed the Sun: Visionary Works by J.B. Murray. CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY 210 11th Avenue #201 New York, NY 10001. www.cavinmorris.com

CHICAGO CALLING AT INTUIT

ARON PACKER

Sep 29 – Oct 29 and Nov 8 – Dec 12

until Jan 6

Sep 21 – Nov 10

Pauline Simon

Ellen Fances Tuchman

Charles Steffen

KOELSCH GALLERY

Koelsch Gallery presents works by Ellen Frances Tuchman in R+R: reveries and responses from September 29 through October 29. From November 8 through December 12, journeys will feature works by Claire Cusack. KOELSCH GALLERY, 801 Richmond Ave, Houston, TX 77006. koelschgallery.com 12

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The story of the Chicago’s impact on the acceptance of non-mainstream art across the country and the world is told in Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow, featuring the work of Henry Darger, William Dawson, Lee Godie, Mr. Imagination, Aldo Piacenza, Pauline Simon, Drossos Skyllas, Dr. Charles Smith, Wesley Willis and Joseph Yoakum. The parallel exhibition Chicago We Own It explores the Chicago style of collecting. INTUIT: THE CENTER FOR INTUITIVE AND OUTSIDER ART 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60642. www.art.org

Heart, Brain, Body and Soul is a two-person exhibition featuring small- and large-scale works on paper by Charles Steffen, alongside kinetic and electric machines and sculpture by Iris Adler. Presented by Aron Packer Projects and the Estate of Charles Steffen. CHICAGO CERAMIC CENTER IN THE BRIDGEPORT ART CENTER, 5th Floor, 1200 W. 35th Street, Chicago, IL 60609. www.packergallery.com

THE FIRE THAT BURNS ON Memories of Larry Harvey, the enigmatic co-founder of the Burning Man festival HARROD BLANK Larry Harvey in Burning Man’s First Camp, 2005, photo: Harrod Blank

first met Larry Harvey in the late 1980s, at San Francisco Bay Area art-related events and parties like ArtCar Fest, Cacophony Society events and Defenestration. I had known about Burning Man and was invited by two of its organisers, John Law and Michael Mikel, in 1991 and 1992, but I didn’t attend until 1993. I brought my first art car, Oh My God! (1977–2018) – the first or second art car ever at Burning Man, depending on how one defines an art car (Michael Mikel’s 5:04 P.M. first appeared in the desert in 1991). I was introduced to Larry again and again as “Harrod Blank, the art car guy”, and Larry would say, “Oh, I know Harrod.” We both wore big hats – his a bit more regal and felt – and mine, working-class Mexican straw. One night in 1993, by some sort of a fire, Larry told me how Burning Man had first come to be. The story was about letting go of his old self after a divorce and starting a new version of himself. I became totally convinced that I should make a film about Burning Man. I did shoot Super 8 film in 1993, but the following year I brought 16 mm and my father, the documentary maker Les Blank, to help film. I also established one of the first and longest-running

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The burning of the man at the end of Burning Man, in Black Rock City, Nevada, photo © George Post 1995

theme camps, “Art Car Camp”. As soon as I could get Larry on camera for an in-depth interview, I think in 1998, the story of the “man” had changed, just as the event had changed. Larry became so busy doing media and working the event that for some years I wouldn’t be able to interview him at all. He never did allow me to just mic him up and follow him around, but he always seemed happy to see me and I looked forward to seeing him. Over the next 25 years, I would make the annual pilgrimage to Burning Man to film, and every year I would pay a visit to First Camp where the organisers camped. It was as if the overall event of Burning Man was some sort of familiar, family gathering place, and I came to know the people and characters a little more each year. It wasn't really “coming home”, as many Burners like to say, but it was definitely a reunion of sorts. Larry was warm to me and always asked when I was “gonna” come out with the movie. At first it was “gonna” be five years, then it became 10, then 15, and finally I settled on 25 years of actual filming. My biggest regret is that Larry will never get to see

Oh My God! at Burning Man, 1995, photo: Harrod Blank with Dan Lohaus and Alexis Spottswood

whatever it is that I create. In 2015, I filmed him with three cameras at once. The wind was gently blowing behind him, moving the back drop, and it was a very mellow interview. It went on for over an hour, and afterwards Larry told me that it was the best interview anyone had ever done. In 2005 and 2006, Larry attended the Houston Art Car Parade as a guest judge, reininforcing his relationship with that art form. The evolution of art cars at the Houston event is one of the threads of the film. In 2017, on the 25th year of filming, a young, speeding driver crashed his car into the back of a stationary car and came at me head on. I swerved and he hit the back of my truck – which was towing my art car Oh My God! I was not seriously hurt but the art car was destroyed. I was on my way to a lecture by John Law at the Nevada Museum of Art, for the first-ever museum exhibit on Burning Man, “City of Dust: The Evolution of Burning Man”. At the grand opening of the exhibition, I filmed Larry and his brother Stewart signing books together. Stewart had just published a book of his photography taken since the inception of the event. Larry seemed to be much more present than normal, and he was relaxed and seemed to be enjoying himself. I saw him again in 2018 at the opening of the Smithsonian exhibit “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man”. He was beaming. I put my hand on his shoulder and told him, “Congratulations, Larry... This is amazing.” Before he could respond, his brother Stewart interrupted with some exciting news and pulled him away. That was the last time I would see Larry. He suffered a massive stroke four

Harrod and Larry (right) at Houston 2005

days later and passed away on April 28, 2018. This enigmatic, almost mythical figure, hard to read, and hard to really get to know in some ways, had left a remarkable legacy. I hope that I can do justice to his amazing event, through all my work on this film over the years, and that I can make Larry proud, as if he will be watching. Harrod Blank is a documentary filmmaker and art car artist, and is founder of Art Car World, Douglas AZ, www.artcarworld.org

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THE APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO NORBERT KOX

Norbert Kox on his famous “Demon Hunter” Harley Davidson, which he welded together and painted in the mid 1970s. His painting, Betrayed: Yesu Christ at the Hands of His Adversaries (1988–90), hangs behind him

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Norbert H. Kox outside his newly opened Apocalypse House and NEW Museum of Visionary Art, 134 E. Main Street, Gillett, Wisconsin, 2018.

Norbert Kox gave a preview of his new museum, which showcases his “apocalyptic visual parables” MICHAEL BONESTEEL

Photographs by Fred Scruton

“I

f you’re travelin’ in the north country fair” (apologies to Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan), you might consider dropping by Norbert Kox’s new Apocalypse House and Museum of Visionary Art located in the small Midwestern town of Gillett, just north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Kox recently purchased an earlytwentieth-century building that was once the village hospital then stood empty for many years. He is in the process of converting the two-storey structure into a museum, studio and living space. A grand opening was held at the end of June, 2018. Upon entering the spacious downstairs lobby of the Apocalypse House and Museum, one encounters a long, meandering central hallway that leads into a maze of gallery rooms. They wind along the left side to the rear of the building, continue across the back, and then move up along the right side of the first floor area. The galleries

were created by subdividing the expansive first floor into separate-but-interconnected rooms of various sizes and dimensions. Some can be accessed from a central hallway, while others cannot. The gallery room walls are eight feet tall, stopping short of reaching the full 11 feet to the ceiling, effectively lending each room an intimacy but also providing light and ventilation. Nine areas are sectioned off according to subject matter. Signs inscribed on wooden plaques hang over the doorways to each gallery to indicate what lies beyond. The first gallery is titled “Babylon”, followed by “Light and Dark”, “Good and Evil”, “The Gift”, “Legion”, “Blood Offering” and “Divine Intervention”, in addition to two specialised spaces called “Innocents” and "Demon Hunter”. Norbert Kox is a prominent figure among a significant subgroup of visionary artists specialising in apocalyptic themes, including contemporaries such as RAW VISION 99

Agony In Gethsemane: The Tribulation of Yesu Christ, 1989, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in. / 121.9 x 152.4 cm

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William Thomas Thompson and Frank Bruno. Past masters include McKendree Robbins Long, Gertrude Morgan, James Hampton, William Blayney, Myrtice West and, most famously, Howard Finster. All of these artists created work in response to the New Testament’s Book of Revelations, attributed to John of Patmos who foresaw the end of the world, Armageddon, Christ’s second coming, a 1000-year reign of peace, Satan’s final rebellion, God’s last judgement of Satan, and the establishment of new heavens and a new earth. During a recent visit to the museum, I asked Kox to elaborate on his relationship to the Bible: “I believe that the Bible is the word of God, but there are so many different translations”, explained Kox. “Even with all the mistranslations, no matter how the Bible gets butchered, if someone is really seeking God, God will help that person find the way. If one’s heart is right and one is looking for the truth, that person will find it.” While Kox believes in the word of the gospels, he does not necessarily believe in the words of his fellow Christians. “I am a follower of the teachings of Christ and a Christian, but I don’t always call myself a Christian because not all Christians believe in the teachings of Christ”, said Kox. “A lot of Christians would disagree with me about whether you can only have salvation through Christ. The way some non-Christians are living their lives, they are living a Christ-like life in better ways than many Christians.”

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THE MYSTIC IMAGINATION Helen Martins created her own version of Paradise and the Holy Land in the isolated, desert region of Karoo, South Africa ANNE GRAAFF

A conference of the birds, peacock, heron and owl, perch together atop one corner of Martins’ Gates of Paradise

Photos by Samantha Rheinders unless stated

elen Martins was born in 1897 in the small Karoo village of Nieu-Bethesda in South Africa, nestled in a valley on a high plateau. Agricultural crops and animals grazing in fields intersperse the village homes. The Karoo is an arid region, but the valley has water. This changes everything. The life-bringing water wells up from a natural spring in the hills and is channelled in furrows to fields and homes. The village is a little oasis of lush and verdant growth. Trees can grow to truly impressive heights – something about the soil, the light and the water. This is a version of Paradisem and the place has a biblical feel: sheep graze in the fields, donkeys are employed for transport, there are unpolluted night skies, and the sunlight has a clarity and sparkle that is unusual in today’s world. The clock seems to have stopped in Nieu-Bethesda and the village is not so very different to when Martins was born. Martins spent her childhood in Nieu-Bethesda. She went on to enrol in teacher training at the college in the nearest town, Graaff Reinett. She married a fellow teacher and they moved together to Volksrust, in the Mpumalanga 26

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region where both of them took jobs in the local school. In his spare time, her husband wrote and directed plays and had an active interest in amateur dramatics. Martins was pulled into this world, performing in a number of his plays. The marriage did not last longer than three years, but Martins’ interest in the stage continued. For a brief period she joined a theatre company, touring and performing with them. It is therefore unsurprising that when, back in Nieu-Bethesda, she started to create her Owl House and Camel Yard, she employed all the skills of stage and theatre to bring to life her created world. She had returned to her home village in her mid thirties to care for ageing and infirm parents, and she never left. Nearly ten years went by before the death of her father, her mother having passed away years earlier. The loss of her father was a form of liberation for her. She now owned the house and her time. She was free to do as she liked, so, working with the materials at hand and employing individuals from the local community to assist her, she began to build the environment that has made her well known – indeed, well known enough that a play

In Martinsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; densely populated Camel Yard, birds, camels, human figures and miniature dwellings jostle for space. In the sculptured tableau in the foreground, a figure, symbol of the sign of Aquarius, pours water from a jug while at her feet are two owls, her protectors

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above: The camel is Martins’ chief symbol of the daytime pilgrimage on the path to the Holy Land. The owl is her symbol of the night-time watch, the all-seeing alertness that must, in her world, accompany the search for spiritual wisdom left above: A nude figure takes a step, as if defying gravity and walking on air, towards the arched Moon Gate, surmounted by an owl. We see one of the owl’s faces. There is another face that looks out towards the hills. The Janus-faced owl, representing 360º vision as well as the notion of duplicity, is part of Martins’ owl vocabulary left below: A figure sleeps peacefully upon Martins’ version of a prayer rug, created from the upturned ends of glass bottles. He is copied from a picture hanging on a wall in The Owl House entitled On the Road to Mecca

and then a movie of the play have been made about her. Some of the filming of the 1991 film of Athol Fugard’s play The Road to Mecca, based on Martins’ life, took place at The Owl House. The producer, Roy Sargeant, was sitting on the veranda when some coins fell down from one of the old beams, landing in his lap. I was there at the time. We all talked about the coincidence, some suggesting that Martins was sending a message – a blessing, we hoped. That night, the lights of the van carrying the filming equipment turned on by their own accord and would not turn off. An electric fault, no doubt, but we were a little sobered. It was not impossible to imagine that Martins was playing tricks, having a bit of fun at our expense. Someone said that The Owl House could be haunted by her spirit. In a more everyday and literal sense, The Owl House is 28

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In the mirror, a view of the Long Bedroom, its walls coated in glittering glass

Helen Martins poses in front of one of her star-shaped mirrors, creating the illusion that she wears a glittering crown halo, photo: Owl House Foundation

An envious green sun created from crushed-up coloured glass looks in at the dining-room window

At a certain time of day, with the sun shining from behind, the red-tinted window in the kitchen creates a sense of furnace heat. A family of cement owls sits on the window ledge

indeed haunted by the spirit of Martins. It is literally a map of her evolving consciousness, an unfolding imaginative and personal drama. With its adjacent Camel Yard, it is an artwork that grew by accretion of ideas and materials into the maze of meanings that characterises its later incarnations. It started humbly, from a desire to commemorate two owls that died in her yard during a snowstorm. The birds perished because the roof of the cage in which she kept them collapsed under the weight

of the snow. Not believing in her own artistic capabilities, she got the son of a neighbour to do a sketch of an owl, which she passed on to Piet van der Merwe, a local builder, asking if he might attempt to copy the picture and build two cement owls as commemoration stones for the ones she had lost. At the time, Martins kept a vast number of wild birds in her yard, most of them in an assortment of walk-through, makeshift cages constructed from wire mesh. She adored RAW VISION 99

KWAME AKOTO SAID ALMIGHTY GOD Jean Seisser, an author and contemporary of the French artist Hervé Di Rosa, recalls their encounters with a very special artist in Ghana JEAN SEISSER

he French artist Hervé Di Rosa has been travelling the world since 1992. Going from one workshop to another, he learns how images and objects are produced in different cultures, with the ultimate aim of blending different methods into his own productions. He has worked with icon restorers in Sofia, Bulgaria, and embroiderers in Porto Novo, Benin. He has met tannedhide painters in Addis Ababa, fresco masters in Patrimonio, Corsica, and learned how to use lacquer

with a Vietnamese master in Binh Duong. For his third “Étape Autour du Monde” (Step Around the World) in 1993, Di Rosa was in Kumasi, Ghana, looking for a workshop foreman. I found better than that: Almighty God. Back then, Ghanaian hairdressers’ signs were monopolising the time of local art producers from Dakar to Kinshasa; they were not, however, Almighty God Art Works’ speciality. This studio focused on custom calligraphy for cars – number plates and legal wording –

opposite Almighty God Art Works, 2018, glycerophtalic paint on wood, 48 x 47.2 in. / 122 x 120 cm, F. Adamsbaum/ V. Di Rosa, photo: Vincent Di Rosa right Thanks for not Creating me a Cow, 2016, glycerophtalic paint on canvas, 46 x 35.4 in. / 117 x 90 cm, Musée Du Quai Branly, photo: Pierre Schwartz

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Pride Goeth, 2017, glycerophtalic paint on wood, 22.8 x 47.6 in. / 58 x 121 cm, private collection, photo: Pierre Schwartz

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Mamy Wata, 2017, glycerophtalic paint on wood, x 47.2 in. / 80 x 120 cm, Collection Antoine De Galbert, photo: Pierre Schwartz

and traffic signs. It was also commissioned to make advertising posters 3 x 4 metres in size. I recognised Almighty’s signature on several giant signs that depicted terrifying car crashes, each reproduced in a newspaper to promote road safety. He had painted them then gifted them to Ghana’s Ministry of Transportation to be placed outside big cities to encourage drivers to be cautious. He was renowned in Kumasi, a city of two million in the Ashanti region, and in certain circles his reputation had reached Europe and America. Now he mostly goes by the name of his workshop, “Almighty God”, but his given name is Kwame Akoto. He was born on November 25, 1950, in Kumasi. He went to elementary school in Bremang and then studied the “art business” with two billboard masters in Kumasi, Kwasi Addaï and Kobia Amafi. A portrait of Addaï, taken shortly before his death, hangs on the workshop fence. At the end of his apprenticeship in 1972, Akoto opened his own studio and called it “Anthony Art Works”, a tribute to Anthony of Padua, the eleventh-century Franciscan friar and patron saint of lost things. He began going by the name of Anthony Akoto. Soon after, he converted to Christianity with his partner, and future wife, Faustina and, “freed from Satan’s influence”, he was “born again” on December 13, 1991. He renamed the studio Almighty God Art Works. In his autobiography, Almighty God wrote: “What I love most is to be a witness of Jesus

Christ, create art, sing, and get physical exercise”. As well as an artist, Almighty God is a fervent preacher and famous healer, and a member of the House of Faith Ministries, a Pentecostal sect. Almighty God Art Works studio is a large wooden structure that has been lined with painted panels demonstrating the painter’s skills. Almighty God sits in the centre, facing his easel. Stern-faced and upright, he reigns over his assistants, students and trainees like a tyrannical conductor over his orchestra. He focusses on the work in front of him but governs at the same time, keeping an eye on everybody, and dictating errands, chores and the movements of any visitors. Almighty God has about a dozen painters working for his studio, each paying for their apprenticeship. Initially, he asks them to stand behind him and simply observe. The trainees clean brushes, and bring the paints, solvents and tools he asks for. At night they prepare the billboards with white vinyl wall coverings. During their free time – that is, when Almighty is away – they try a few simple shapes and letterings on specific boards under the watch of Ibrahim Yacouba Khatib, one of the elders who oversees the studio. This first phase of Almighty’s apprenticeship can last from several weeks to several months. It is a drawn-out initiation process during which trainees gradually absorb the knowledge and way of thinking that Almighty

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THE POLICEMAN WHO CAPTURED THE MONSTERS OF THE IMAGINATION GRACIELA GARCIA

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above: Front cover of the bestiary opposite: Frontispiece for the first biological family “Animals and Wild Beasts” of the bestiary of Josep Baqué, from a total of nine families

Baqué’s 1934 identity card as a member of the Barcelona municipal police corps

strange creature looks out at us with its bulging insect eyes, opening its red-lipped mouth that is filled with large fangs. It has the front legs of a lion, the rear legs of a horse, the tail of a rodent and the horns of a bull. Its back bristles with reptilian scales, but, despite its efforts, it doesn’t manage to appear truly menacing. This is the first imaginary being in the bestiary of Josep Baqué. Impossible creatures have been assembled by the whims of this Spanish policeman, who joined together the parts of various animals, mythological beasts, humans and inanimate objects. A total of 1,500 creatures await our gaze in the pencil box where Baqué

catalogued and stored them, biding their time for captions that they would never receive. All we know of the captions is their absence, highlighted by the blank spaces reserved at the foot of each monster having never been filled in by their creator. What could have impelled this secretive man, about whom even his family knew very little, to devote his free time over the decades to the creation of a bestiary? We can only speculate as to his motives, but one thing is obvious: Baqué was busy playing, and entertaining himself. When we enter his world of mocking hybrids, then observe how he learns as he progresses from one monster to the next, and how the combinations multiply

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top: Sheet 286. Third family, “Bats and Insects” above: Sheet 111. First family, “Animals and Wild Beasts”

or incorporate the odd feature that inspired him, we see the enjoyment of a child at play. We can discern Baqué the child imprisoned in an adult body, wearing a uniform (which he was ashamed of ) and having little or no desire to exercise authority. Baqué was an atypical policeman. He walked his beat slowly, to warn street vendors of his approach and give them time to gather up their items and make off. It is possible that this collection of images was a kind of regression to the warm coziness of his solitary childhood. A way of retreating to that bastion of pleasure where serialisation and variations create a comforting

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setting that enabled him to feel like a demiurge. Julio Cortázar wrote an inspiring text, “The Feeling of Not Being Quite There”, about the child-adult (or converse) which may shed some light on Baqué: “I will always be like a child about so many things, but one of those children who from the very start bear the adult within them, so that when the little monster actually reaches adulthood he too still bears the child within him, and in the middle of his life experiences a rarely peaceful coexistence of at least two outlooks on the world.” This double outlook on the world and the feeling of

top: Sheet 244. Second family, “Primitive Men” above: Sheet 415. Ninth family, “Fish”

“not being quite there” has echoes in the account of Baqué’s life that has reached us through the testimony of his nephew. Baqué was born in Barcelona in 1895. His mother would have preferred a girl and dressed him like one until the age of five. To cap it all, the town clerk who filled out his death certificate recorded his marital status as “spinster” (soltera) rather than “bachelor” (soltero) by mistake. During his childhood, Baqué was supposedly rebellious and eccentric. He had trouble concentrating on schoolwork and loved to escape into the pages of the Art Deco magazines his uncle gave him. After trying his hand at various jobs in the port and market in Barcelona, he left home aged 17 to earn his

living abroad – a move that was somewhat unusual for those times. During this first European adventure, he went to Marseille and Dusseldorf, working as a kitchen helper and a stonecutter, among other trades. Upon returning to Spain at the outset of World War I, Baqué had to complete his own military service, an obligation he performed as reluctantly as punishments would allow. In 1920 he decided to leave Spain again, and lived in Germany, Belgium and France, working for the most part as a stone engraver. He specialised in funeral chapels, monuments to the fallen in battle, and shop façades – jobs that probably helped stimulate his imagination. No one knows why he decided to return to Barcelona in

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REPAINTING MEMORIES The modern power of the silver paintbrush: an older artist based in China YUAN LIU

Writing in a Difficult Way, 2018, 27.2 x 27.2 in. / 69 x 69 cm. All works are Chinese ink on rice paper

hina has the largest older population in the world â&#x20AC;&#x201C; by 2017, there were more than 150 million people aged 65 and over. The everyday life of this enormous-but-largely-silent community is shockingly homogeneous. The majority of senior citizens in China continue their roles as family caregivers, helping their children with household chores and looking after their grandchildren. Their free time is usually spent on fitness46

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Translation by Wei Ran

related activities as they try to battle old age, ailments and feelings of emptiness by sticking to healthy routines and diets, travelling, being physically active, and spending time on some kind of hobby. For 71-year-old Shao Bingfeng, however, life after retirement has meant much more. She became an artist ten years ago, and today her work is on show in galleries in Paris and Beijing. A petite woman with grizzled hair, Shao is full of

energy and looks younger than her age. She lives with her daughter’s family in the suburban town of Yanjiao. After minor surgery last year, she decided to settle in the area for easy access to the hospital. The town is about 20 miles from Beijing and the low house prices have turned it into a satellite city that has attracted a lot of artists who work in Beijing. During the day, the residential area is very

patterns, and a few more leopards with surprised expressions have joined the lone one in the original picture. Shao uses traditional Chinese pigments and thin ink brushes for colouring, which produces an unassuming tone that nonetheless serves to create tension and depict all kinds of eerie scenes. Those who see Shao at work for the first time would probably be intrigued by her

Shao at work, 2018

quiet. Shao’s daughter’s apartment is on the ground floor and has a small backyard filled with plants. Shao’s room faces the yard, and her bedside work table is covered with art supplies – a convenient setup for her to continue painting after her siesta. When she is working, Shao stands with unwavering concentration, sometimes all afternoon. Her daughter wishes she would not work so hard, but Shao thinks there’s no better way to relax than painting. An iPad on Shao’s work table stands out among the palettes and brushes, with an image on its screen: a girl in black (who appears to be Eastern European) lies on her side on top of a low cabinet. A leopard inside the open cabinet seems to be fascinated by the girl’s hanging braid. Shao’s painting of this image retains the same basic composition, but the Eastern European girl has been replaced by a Chinese country lass in a floral print dudou (traditional Chinese bodice), the pillow and the cabinet have been decorated with finely crafted traditional

method, but she has been working this way for more than a decade: she is not really duplicating, because her creations are completely different from the references she uses. A painting takes Shao a week to a month to finish, and sometimes she recolours old works long after they are completed if she spots something unsatisfying. Over 500 completed rice-paper works have already come out of Shao’s daily exercise, all with a distinct, unified style that belongs to her and her alone. Shao’s reference pictures are sourced from the internet by her daughter, then Shao picks what she finds “interesting” to paint. Judging by her recent series’ (such as the “Circus”, “Dalí ” and “Hairdressers from the Industrial Period” series), her definition of “interesting” must contain elements such as exaggerated dramatic intensity, rich content and novelty scenarios. She has even tried her hand at medieval altarpieces. The colour and resolution of the original image is irrelevant to Shao. Creating lifelike images is never Shao’s goal; her RAW VISION 99

Four Heavenly Kings, 2016, 27.2 x 36.2 in. / 69 x 92 cm

brushstrokes are characterised by their unconstrained intuition and heartfelt sincerity. The Western figures in her early paintings all have East Asian features, and she finds painting children especially challenging. She admits that it’s a pity she can’t paint them better than “dwarves with adult heads”. From clothing to furniture, wherever decoration is concerned Shao is drawn to traditional Chinese patterns. Winding curves, floral patterns, auspicious characters – these images are normally used to represent good fortune and happiness in Chinese folk art, but in Shao’s work they are found on the bikinis and surfing boards of modish girls. Even the clown who plays Rigoletto in the circus looks like a Peking Opera performer with a pair of embroidered shoes. Shao likes to fill the background of her paintings with everyday objects: the wall behind Dalí is decorated with a wallmounted air conditioner with exposed ducts and a column heater, both commonly seen in Chinese households; a traditional porcelain flower vase sits at the feet of Madonna, and potted plants from Shao’s own backyard can be found in most of her paintings. Shao’s eccentric and naive visual style is supported by her self-taught painting skills. She seems to have automatically mastered shading and the handling of complex folds; recently, she has successfully taken on the texture of silk dresses and the skin of elephants. Shao fills blank spaces with micro-patterns, such as the snowflakes 48

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she draws, which are so refined that many mistake the texture for the paper itself. This technique is like a kind of embroidery, or a version of folk Gongbi (classic Chinese realist painting) of Shao’s own creation. Her finished work is exquisite, neat and shows a high degree of completion. Shao’s first painting was done in 2006 on a piece of cardboard paper that came with a newly bought shirt, nearly a decade after her retirement. The grandson she had been taking care of had already turned four. She had been content drawing cats and dogs with her grandson until one day she painted an old photograph. Her daughter and son-in-law were both studying at the art academy and they were genuinely surprised when they saw Shao’s painting. We can now understand their wonder completely – Shao is an artist born with her own style. Encouraged by her daughter and son-in-law, Shao repainted almost all the old family photos, from blackand-white studio portraits of her younger self to photos of family gatherings and weddings from the 1980s when colour film was just starting to become popular, and to portraits of friends in the art circle she met after making a name for herself in the industry. Compared with her later works, Shao’s early paintings are more straightforward and the colours relatively opaque. But no matter what period the reference photo comes from, Shao’s work always seems to carry something of times gone by. Even her reproductions of contemporary Western photography

Smoking is Harmful to Health, 2017, 27.2 x 27.2 in. / 69 x 69 cm

The reference photograph from which Shao worked for Smoking is Harmful to Health

Family Series No. 21, 2012, 23.6 x 17.1 in. / 66 x 43.5 cm

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DOCUMENTS OF A VICTIM The “sterelation” drawings of Wilhelm Werner THOMAS RÖSKE and MAIKE ROTZOLL

All works were made between 1934 and 1938 using pencil on paper, and are from the Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg

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The Triumph of Sterelation (“25”), 8.1 x 6.3 in. / 20.5 x 16 cm, Inv. Nr. 8083 (2008) fol. 25 recto

Untitled (“1”), 8.1 x 6.3 in. / 20.5 x 16.0 cm, Inv. Nr. 8083 (2008) fol. 1 recto

t the end of 2008, the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg, Germany, acquired from a private individual 30 small, numbered drawings dating from between 1934 and 1938 by an inmate of Werneck Asylum in Lower Franconia, Bavaria. In 2010, the Collection was able to acquire 14 more drawings by this artist from the same source, this time without numbers. They are fascinating not only because of their singular figurative aesthetics but also because they stand out as examples from a period in German history when hardly any asylum

art was kept – and as unique documents on the atrocities of Nazi medicine. The author, Wilhelm Werner, was not known at all at the time, and there is hardly any information about him because his medical file has not been found. The documents that are available only reveal that he was born on September 18, 1898, admitted to Werneck Asylum in 1919 with the diagnosis of “idiocy” and transferred to an “unknown institution” on October 6, 1940. Other than these scant facts, it was noted that he was Catholic, unmarried and without a profession.

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Untitled (“17”), 7.9 x 6.3 in. / 20.1 x 16.1 cm, Inv. Nr. 8083 (2008) fol. 17 recto

We now know that the unknown institution to which Werner was transferred in 1940 was the “Euthanasia” killing asylum Pirna/Sonnenstein. As most “transfers” were directly gassed on the day of their arrival, we probably also know the date of his death. Werner’s images are drawn on the backs of pages from a thin notebook originally intended as a shop order book. A staff member at the institution took the bundle of drawings with him when he left Werneck in 1938. He showed it to friends and acquaintances many times until his death, fascinated by the explosive nature of its content and the unique compositions of the drawings, so that the pages are worn.

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He also punched holes in the pages and reassembled them. These pencil drawings are the only preserved works of art on the sterilisation of patients from the Nazi period, which started in 1934. Until now, only a few poems have remained that represent an artistic attempt to process this invasive operation affecting the core of personality, but no visual works. The drawings also indicate an immense complexity in processing these experiences with the help of original schematic renderings of people and things. For this reason alone, the diagnosis “idiocy” seems puzzling. On the inside of the book cover, which was preserved as well, Werner refers to himself as an “orator of the people

For the Matter of Sterelation (“13”), 8 x 6.1 in. / 20.2 x 15.5 cm, Inv. Nr. 8083 (2008) fol. 13 recto

and theatre director Wilhelm Werner, Werneck Asylum”. Indeed, his drawings seem like scenes from a puppet show. The space of action is flat, the figures mostly act parallel to the plane of the image surface. Their heads are usually depicted in profile; arms and legs are only connected to the always-voluminous bodies at a single point; the hands often taking on a schematic mitten-like shape. When the figures are nude, the turning point at the outside of the shoulders can even be seen, like the split pin of a jumping jack; navel and anus are accentuated, the nipples are positioned too high up on the chest. The actors differ in dress, hairstyle, and gender: deaconesses in habits,

men wearing suits, naked men, clowns with spherical bodies, partly dressed, partly naked, and naked boys. Werner often “stages” meetings of doctors and nurses with the victims of surgery. The doctors here mainly play the part of observers and controllers, while the deaconesses manipulate the genitals of the men and boys in question. The artist’s sympathy is clearly with the seemingly helpless victims. Especially impressive are the round clowns who, although dressed as comic figures, undergo surgery with a serious face or juggle with testicle “balls.” At the same time, the “perpetrators” are not presented as unambiguously evil. “Portraits” of several

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Johann Hauser

Helmut Hladisch

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM GUGGING brain feeling.! art from gugging from 1970 to the present April 26, 2018 – April 11, 2021 Maria Gugging, Austria The name Gugging has become synonymous with the creations of some of the most essential European makers of art brut. Located in the northwestern outskirts of Vienna, today’s Art Brut Center Gugging focuses on the presentation of the most original and technically inventive forms of this kind of art. It encompasses the Artists’ House, a residence for art-making autodidacts; Museum Gugging; Galerie Gugging – Nina Katschnig, an outlet for the showing and sale of Gugging-related and other artists’ works; and an art studio that is used by Gugging artists and is open by appointment to the public. 60

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Art Brut Center Gugging evolved out of the work the Austrian psychiatrist Leo Navratil pursued at this same site beginning in the late 1940s at a nowdefunct, so-called mental health and care facility. Navratil became interested in the remarkable drawings that some of his psychiatric patients produced; he used them for diagnostic purposes and, in time, established the precursor to today’s Artists’ House. In 1986, the psychiatrist Johann Feilacher, who is also an accomplished sculptor, succeeded Navratil at Gugging. Under his leadership, artmaking patients became recognised as “artists”, and, in 2006, Museum Gugging was founded, providing a showcase for Gugging-related creators’ works as well as those of makers of art brut from around the world. “brain feeling.! art from gugging from

1970 to the present” takes its curious title from a drawing by the Gugging artist Johann Garber, in which blob-like shapes appear with the label “DAS KLEINE FADE GEHIRNGEFÜHL” (“the small, dull brain feeling”). The exhibition offers a survey of roughly 150 works by more than a dozen representative, Gugging-related artists, taking as its starting point the year 1970, when a group of such creations was first presented in a contemporary-art setting at a well-known commercial gallery in Vienna. Since then, thanks to the enthusiasm with which the public has responded to the work of such artists as Johann Hauser, Oswald Tschirtner, Franz Kernbeis, and Günther Schützenhöfer, all of whose drawings are known for expressive interpretations of their subjects in plain pencil or coloured pencil, much of the art from Gugging has become known for its

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Latefa Noorzai

André Robillard

Harald Stoffers

EXHIBITIONS

LIVING IN ART BRUT: WORKS FROM THE HANNAH RIEGER COLLECTION Bildraum Bodensee Bregenz, Austria July 17 – August 17, 2018 Ever since, in the 1940s, Jean Dubuffet identified a genre of artistic expression he called “art brut”, research and collecting activities like those of the influential, French modern artist have played a large role in determining the scope and concerns of this distinctive field. In Europe, the Vienna-based collector Hannah Rieger, who began acquiring works of this kind in 1991, has assembled a collection that is strong in its representation of classic and contemporary European art brut creators. In recent years, it has also incorporated pieces by art-makers from the Americas,

Asia, and other regions. This exhibition of nearly 60 works was presented at an art centre in one of Austria’s westernmost cities. On view in Bregenz, among other exemplary works by more than 30 artists, visitors encountered marker-on-canvas pictures by Oswald Tschirtner, an artist who was associated with the Art Brut Center Gugging, near Vienna, from whose gallery Rieger has acquired numerous pieces and to whose museum exhibitions she has lent art, too. A charming image of the sun, in felttip pen on paper, by the French artist André Robillard; one of the German Harald Stoffers’ overall-inscribed “letters”, in waterproof felt-tip pen on paper; and untitled, mysterious human forms, in pencil on paper, by the Iranian Davood Koochaki, offered evidence of Rieger’s abiding admiration of the draughtman’s

art. So did an untitled portrait in acrylic and India ink on paper – two simple ovals and an expressive face – by Latefa Noorzai, an Afghanistan-born artist who is associated with Creative Growth Art Center in California. A portrait rendered in acrylic on a scrap of corrugated metal by the American Mary T. Smith was cleverly mounted on an upright metal rod, allowing the piece to be appreciated both as a painting and as a sculptural form. In conjunction with this exhibition, Rieger launched “Living in Art Brut” (www.livinginartbrut.com), a website showcasing her collection and offering her testimony about the special relationship she has developed with it. She observed, “This kind of art is very strong. That’s why I say that one finds oneself living in its powerful ambiance, not just with these unusual objects.” Edward M. Gómez RAW VISION 99

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SPIRIT LINES

THE SECRET KINGDOM

Tellurian Research Press, Melbourne, Australia ISBN: 978-0-9942-7771-8

Nek Chand, a Changing India, and a Hidden World of Art Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Claire A. Nivola, Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts, ISBN 978-0-7636-7475-5

Sylvia and Tony Convey are central figures in the history of self-taught and outsider art in Australia. Their artistic output has been prodigious and rich. And while they are artists to the core, their tireless support for other creators and contribution to the field in other ways must also be acknowledged. Their work is different in many respects, and they have hardly ever produced collaborative works, but they are bound together by common feelings of place, history, worldview and an immense feeling of the numinous in things. For the Conveys, as with most artists, work on paper is where all these things are revealed most directly and in their rawness. Yet, their public careers have been defined overwhelmingly by paintings, sculptures and constructions. This lovingly and beautifully produced book devoted to graphic work spanning the full spread of their activities to date is therefore both a revelatory and deeply moving document. Superb quality illustrations take the reader through an artistic journey at once intriguing and enlightening. At times poignant and deeply personal, these visionary emanations of particular places, people and journeys are also vehicles for more universal messages and always enlightening. But this book is also testimony to two people indissolubly linked through the strongest of ties. Together they have shared new discoveries and great swathes of highs and lows, and pain and joy in art and life. Their work comes from a place unconcerned with artistic fashion or desire for cultural assimilation. It is a privilege that some of it is shared with us in this book. Colin Rhodes

BOOKS

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This is a charming and expressive illustrated picture book by award-winning children’s author, Barb Rosenstock. The subjects of her narrative nonfiction and historical fiction picture books for children have included biographies of numerous well-known artists and presidents. Here, she introduces readers to Nek Chand’s phenomenal Rock Garden. Starting with his childhood, revealing his inspirations, and travelling with him and his family through the partition of India that forced them to flee their home. The approach that Rosenstock takes in her storytelling is a joy, bringing the man and his creation to life. It brings a poignant sense of Chand’s wish to find somewhere that he would belong, which, as we know, he went on to fashion himself. Children can get lost in the detail of the delightful pictures and all readers can enjoy the journey through his life, including the challenges he faced and his resilience in the face of them. His inspirations are revealed and anticipation builds, as Chand finds rubble and trash and transforms it into his 12-acre “secret kingdom”. Nuala Ernest

CURATED BY JOHANN GARBER by Nina Katschnig, Galerie Gugging, Maria Gugging, Austria This is the latest of a series of catalogues written by Nina Katschnig, each one published in a small format with a bright colourful cover. Celebrating Johann Garber’s 70th birthday, the catalogue documents the works this senior Gugging artist selected for this commemorative

exhibition along with text and Garber’s own statement which includes: “I’m used to painting and drawing, like eating and drinking, I’m happy about every day”. Katschnig points out that Garber’s own room at the Artists’ House is the only one that is decorated with his works and he is an ideal curator. Included in Garber’s choice are Gugging greats such as August Walla and Oswald Tschirtner as well as the repetitive images of Heinrich Reisenbauer, Garber’s room-mate, and the intensely shaded forms of Günther Schützenhöfer. John Maizels

MILOSAV JOVANOVI Museum of Naive and Marginal Art, Jagodina, Serbia ISBN 978-86-84403-73-7 This dual-language book is brimming with visionary, psychedelic–pointillist reproductions of paintings that are laden with strong symbolism about love, death and longing. Of the 146 pages, 100 are of images by this well-known Serbian naive/marginal artist, who has been creating intense work since 1955. Nuala Ernest