This exhibition will examine the full visual and conceptual range of James Castle (1899 – 1977) one of the most enigmatic and remarkable self-taught artists to emerge in the United States during the 20th century.
Bringing together almost 300 examples from 60 public and private collections, this is the first comprehensive museum exhibition devoted to Castle's work. The exhibition will be on view from October 14, 2008 to January 4, 2009.
It will explore the variety of modes Castle employed throughout his life, from drawings and colored wash pieces to handmade books, assemblages, and text works, for all of which he used found pieces of paper or cardboard and homemade inks and colorants primarily of his own invention.
That Castle left behind at his death a huge and varied body of work is exceptional, as he was born profoundly deaf and did not adopt speech, sign language, lip reading, writing, or any of the usual modes of communicating with other people. He did not marry, travel, or hold a job but lived with his family on the three small farms in Garden Valley, Star, and Boise, Idaho, that the Castle family occupied successively during his lifetime. He attended the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind in Gooding (about 100 miles southeast of Boise) for about five years (1910-15) but for unknown reasons he resisted its teaching program, instead pursuing art as his primary means of communication.
Catalogue: James Castle: A Retrospective will be accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue, which will include a just-released DVD of a 53-minute documentary film on the life and art of James Castle (entitled James Castle: Portrait of an Artist), sponsored by the Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists in Philadelphia. The film, which premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival in April, will help bring to life Castle's family, milieu, and art for the viewer. It was created by filmmaker Jeffrey Wolf and will be shown as part of the exhibition.
The 280-page catalogue, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press and containing over 350 illustrations, will consider Castle's remarkable art from a variety of perspectives, examining his life, modes of depiction, working methods and materials, and the "visual poetry" of his text works. Edited by Ann Percy, the catalogue includes essays by Ann Percy, Castle expert Jacqueline Crist, folklorist Brendan Greaves, Philadelphia Museum of Art paper conservators Nancy Ash and Scott Homolka and conservation scientists Beth Anne Price and Kenneth Sutherland, as well as an interview with painter Terry Winters by Jeffrey Wolf. The catalogue is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications.
Sponsors: James Castle: A Retrospective is made possible by a grant from the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by The University of the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring program; the Henry Luce Foundation; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; the Ervika Foundation; Marion Stroud Swingle; and other generous individuals. -- www.philamuseum.org
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
