L. Kent Wolgamott: ‘Outsider’ art has a passion and power all its own
The more I see “outsider art,” the more I come to believe that there’s nothing “outside” about it.
While sometimes made with less facility than similar work by “professional” artists, the pieces created by the unschooled artists are every bit as meaningful and evocative as much of the art that is produced by MFAs.
And “outsider” or “folk art” is often infused with a passion and power that give it punch greater than the intellectualized contemporary academic art.
Such is the case with the 72 objects on view in “The Eskridge Collection: Outsider, Folk Art and Contemporary Self-Taught Art,” on view through Nov. 6 at the Eisentrager/Howard Gallery in Richards Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
Longtime collectors of outsider, folk and contemporary self-taught art, the Eskridges are sharing part of their collection with the Lincoln community in this fascinating show, curated by Eisentrager/Howard director Joe Ruffo.
For those concerned about names, “The Eskridge Collection” contains works by some of the best-known outsider/folk artists, including Alabama’s Thornton Dial Jr., whose work has been widely publicized and exhibited in museums, and Howard Finster, the visionary Georgian who felt called by God to paint 5,000 works of religious art.
Given that he produced secular pieces as well, Finster, who died in 2001, was one of the 20th century’s most prolific artists. He’s represented here by a piece combining figurative images and handwritten text, signed in block letters “BY HOWARD FINSTER FROM GOD MAN OF VISION.”
While she’s not as well known, a similar vision is behind the work of Sister Gertrude Morgan, a New Orleans street preacher, orphanage owner and gospel singer whose acrylic/pencil on paper is a perfect example of her religious-themed work.
The other “big name” in the show isn’t a name at all. No one knows who the “Philadelphia Wireman” was — or even, for certain, that the creator is male. Found outside a Philadelphia transient home in 1982, the 1,200 pieces attributed to the “wireman” encase found objects in wire, fully transforming both the wire and what is inside it.
Among the most striking works in the show is a trio of pieces by James Castle, a deaf man from Idaho, who crafted drawings on found paper — like the Jell-O box that is the backing for one of the pieces on view. His material: soot and spit, drawn with a sharpened stick. The drawings are impressive — in Ruffo’s words, one of them could easily pass as a Corot.
They’re also not cheap, now selling somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000, providing further evidence from the marketplace that there’s no reason to try to draw some kind of a line between folk/outsider art and fine art.
That feeling is heightened by a handful of pieces made by Cathy Rose, a contemporary self-taught artist who now lives in Florida after being dislocated by Hurricane Katrina. Combining metal, wood, porcelain and found objects, Rose makes female figurative sculptures that have an intensity and insight that stands with any contemporary works — a porcelain head and shoulders with stressed hair coming out of a funnel, for example.
Similarly, the painting of revered, early 20th century banjo player Dock Boggs by Douglas Teller strikingly reproduces the famous photo on which it is based.
As is the case with folk art, many of the pieces on view are from unknown artists. Some of the works date to the 19th century, including a set of Appalachian dancing dolls on a pair of strings and a large religious carving from rural North Carolina that feels like it is from the santos tradition of New Mexico, and many more are about 100 years old.
They include a set of wooden figurative carvings that are possibly African American in origin that tell a story of a prized bull and some thieves who come before the throne of justice. Also notable are a pair of intricately carved canes, with snakes and animals, that clearly have been used — evidence of the utilitarian nature of some folk art that also can be seen in the game boards in the show, including a double-side spinning wheel.
While those pieces are clearly “folk art” it is much more difficult to classify some pieces, such as a piece by Felipe Jesus Consalvos, a Cuban emigre who used his skills as a cigar roller to create a collage that is a captivating, sophisticated mix of dada and mysticism. It’s hard to know whether Consalvos had a clue about dada — I’m guessing the answer would be no. But if art is about what you see, not the artist’s bio and bonafides, that doesn’t matter.
“The Eskridge Collection: Outsider, Folk Art and Contemporary Self-Taught Art” is a true surprise — an exhibition drawn from a Lincoln collection that surveys one of the most interesting aspects of American art, with a few foreign-made objects included as well. It is visually captivating and unusual and is a must-see.
Between the two galleries housing “The Eskridge Collection” is “Inside…Out: Assemblages by Janet Hannah Eskridge,” an exhbition of her haunting, mixed-media assemblages that usually begin with antique boxes and then add found objects, old paper and images and finally, encaustic — a combination of hot wax and pigment.
Eskridge’s work contains some of the same mystery that is found in the outsider art in the other two galleries along with a powerful sense of both history/nostalgia and the passing of time. Pieces like the seashell-adorned “Journey Findings” are primarily decorative; most of her work is deep and evocative, typified by the vertical series of images and objects that follow a life from egg to bone in “Life Path.”
The two shows are a good fit and prime examples of the fact that art is art — no matter whether the maker is highly educated and knows art history and the contemporary art world or is “naive” and “outside.”
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
While sometimes made with less facility than similar work by “professional” artists, the pieces created by the unschooled artists are every bit as meaningful and evocative as much of the art that is produced by MFAs.
And “outsider” or “folk art” is often infused with a passion and power that give it punch greater than the intellectualized contemporary academic art.
Such is the case with the 72 objects on view in “The Eskridge Collection: Outsider, Folk Art and Contemporary Self-Taught Art,” on view through Nov. 6 at the Eisentrager/Howard Gallery in Richards Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.
Longtime collectors of outsider, folk and contemporary self-taught art, the Eskridges are sharing part of their collection with the Lincoln community in this fascinating show, curated by Eisentrager/Howard director Joe Ruffo.
For those concerned about names, “The Eskridge Collection” contains works by some of the best-known outsider/folk artists, including Alabama’s Thornton Dial Jr., whose work has been widely publicized and exhibited in museums, and Howard Finster, the visionary Georgian who felt called by God to paint 5,000 works of religious art.
Given that he produced secular pieces as well, Finster, who died in 2001, was one of the 20th century’s most prolific artists. He’s represented here by a piece combining figurative images and handwritten text, signed in block letters “BY HOWARD FINSTER FROM GOD MAN OF VISION.”
While she’s not as well known, a similar vision is behind the work of Sister Gertrude Morgan, a New Orleans street preacher, orphanage owner and gospel singer whose acrylic/pencil on paper is a perfect example of her religious-themed work.
The other “big name” in the show isn’t a name at all. No one knows who the “Philadelphia Wireman” was — or even, for certain, that the creator is male. Found outside a Philadelphia transient home in 1982, the 1,200 pieces attributed to the “wireman” encase found objects in wire, fully transforming both the wire and what is inside it.
Among the most striking works in the show is a trio of pieces by James Castle, a deaf man from Idaho, who crafted drawings on found paper — like the Jell-O box that is the backing for one of the pieces on view. His material: soot and spit, drawn with a sharpened stick. The drawings are impressive — in Ruffo’s words, one of them could easily pass as a Corot.
They’re also not cheap, now selling somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000, providing further evidence from the marketplace that there’s no reason to try to draw some kind of a line between folk/outsider art and fine art.
That feeling is heightened by a handful of pieces made by Cathy Rose, a contemporary self-taught artist who now lives in Florida after being dislocated by Hurricane Katrina. Combining metal, wood, porcelain and found objects, Rose makes female figurative sculptures that have an intensity and insight that stands with any contemporary works — a porcelain head and shoulders with stressed hair coming out of a funnel, for example.
Similarly, the painting of revered, early 20th century banjo player Dock Boggs by Douglas Teller strikingly reproduces the famous photo on which it is based.
As is the case with folk art, many of the pieces on view are from unknown artists. Some of the works date to the 19th century, including a set of Appalachian dancing dolls on a pair of strings and a large religious carving from rural North Carolina that feels like it is from the santos tradition of New Mexico, and many more are about 100 years old.
They include a set of wooden figurative carvings that are possibly African American in origin that tell a story of a prized bull and some thieves who come before the throne of justice. Also notable are a pair of intricately carved canes, with snakes and animals, that clearly have been used — evidence of the utilitarian nature of some folk art that also can be seen in the game boards in the show, including a double-side spinning wheel.
While those pieces are clearly “folk art” it is much more difficult to classify some pieces, such as a piece by Felipe Jesus Consalvos, a Cuban emigre who used his skills as a cigar roller to create a collage that is a captivating, sophisticated mix of dada and mysticism. It’s hard to know whether Consalvos had a clue about dada — I’m guessing the answer would be no. But if art is about what you see, not the artist’s bio and bonafides, that doesn’t matter.
“The Eskridge Collection: Outsider, Folk Art and Contemporary Self-Taught Art” is a true surprise — an exhibition drawn from a Lincoln collection that surveys one of the most interesting aspects of American art, with a few foreign-made objects included as well. It is visually captivating and unusual and is a must-see.
Between the two galleries housing “The Eskridge Collection” is “Inside…Out: Assemblages by Janet Hannah Eskridge,” an exhbition of her haunting, mixed-media assemblages that usually begin with antique boxes and then add found objects, old paper and images and finally, encaustic — a combination of hot wax and pigment.
Eskridge’s work contains some of the same mystery that is found in the outsider art in the other two galleries along with a powerful sense of both history/nostalgia and the passing of time. Pieces like the seashell-adorned “Journey Findings” are primarily decorative; most of her work is deep and evocative, typified by the vertical series of images and objects that follow a life from egg to bone in “Life Path.”
The two shows are a good fit and prime examples of the fact that art is art — no matter whether the maker is highly educated and knows art history and the contemporary art world or is “naive” and “outside.”
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
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