3 Famous Outsider Artists
Outsider Art:
Naive…visionary…never been in an art school or gallery…disturbing images…
DELIGHTFUL!
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Wash Day, 1950
Clementine Hunter
Oil on pasteboard.
Clementine Hunter was born in 1886, twenty years after the Civil War, when segregation and oppression of blacks was still rampant. Her child-like paintings of picking cotton, picking pecans, washing clothes, baptisms and funerals are gentle images of this oppression.
What a story!
Much of Clementine Hunter’s life was spent working on a plantation in Louisiana and she only attended school for ten days, never learning to read or write.
While she was working as a house servant, an artist visiting the plantation left some discarded brushes and tubes of paint. She became intrigued and used the brushes to “mark a picture” on a window shade.
Clementine Hunter’s career as an artist began! Today she is often referred to as the black Grandma Moses.
When she was 100 years old, Northwestern State University of Louisiana granted her an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
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Untitled
Henry Darger
Henry Darger’s story is heartbreaking but he left the world a treasure trove of art.
Tragedy found Henry Darger early and often. When he was 4 years old, his mother died. Unable to care for him, Darger’s father placed him in an orphanage.
At 16, Darger ran away and for the next 64 years lived alone as a recluse in a rented room while working as a janitor in Chicago.
Darger died at 81.
His landlord, cleaning out Darger’s rooms, made a startling discovery: alone in his room, Darger had created hundreds of beautiful, large paintings illustrating an epic fairytale he had written over 60 years.
A brilliant artist, hidden from the world in the guise of a lonely janitor, Henry Darger has become internationally known and is represented in major museums throughout the world.
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Jesus is my Airplane, 1970
Sister Gertrude Morgan
Jesus Christ The Lamb of God and His Little Bride
Sister Gertrude Morgan, 1960
Crayon and ballpoint pen on paper.
Sister Gertrude Morgan was a poet, a preacher, an artist, and a singer who loved Jesus. She called Jesus her husband, her doctor, and her airplane (yes, airplane), and claimed to have met with him in visions throughout her life.
Born on a farm in Alabama in 1900, Sister Gertrude left school after third grade so that she could help her family with the farm work.
Preaching the gospel tirelessly in the streets of New Orleans, Sister Gertrude founded an orphanage and ministered to the sick and the inmates of Orleans Parish Prison for years.
Sister Gertrude’s paintings were little figures of herself in a white bridal gown standing beside a pudgy little Jesus wearing a tuxedo. Other images pictured her and Jesus in an airplane flying around heaven.
She was adamant that her paintings were divinely inspired and indeed, perhaps they were.
Sister Gertrude died in 1980, at eighty years of age. Her paintings have been exhibited and celebrated in prestigious museums such as the American Folk Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“Jesus is My Airplane” sold to a private collector for $20,700.
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Fantastical video of Henry Darger’s images and fairytale.
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Watch Sister Gertrude Morgan in New Orleans.
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Passion…Heartbreak…Art
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo
Photograph c.1931
Henry Ford Hospital, 1932
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo, born in Mexico in 1907, is Mexico’s most exalted woman artist. As a teenager, she suffered a severe injury in a streetcar accident nearly severing her spine. Confined to her bed for many months, Frida began painting while lying on her back. Chronic pain stayed with her throughout her life.
Frida, 22, fell passionately in love with and married Mexico’s famous artist, the portly Diego Rivera, 42.
Shortly after the marriage, Diego, chronically unfaithful, began affairs with other women. Frida suffered two miscarriages which inspired her heartbreaking masterpieces, graphic/symbolic paintings of emotional and physical pain…paintings that exalt the ability of women to endure truth, reality, cruelty and suffering.
Frida’s fame grew. She is considered to be the first surrealist painter and was the first Mexican woman artist to be represented in a major European institution, The Louvre, Paris.
Frida died at age 47.
“July 13, 1954 was the most tragic day of my life. I had lost my beloved Frida forever. Too late now, I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida.” – Diego Rivera
“There have been two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego.” – Frida Kahlo
Watch this video of Frida Kahlo’s art. “I paint my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo
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America’s First Family of Art!
Cover Illustration for Treasure Island, 1911
N.C. Wyeth
The Grandfather: N.C. Wyeth, 1882-1945
One of America’s foremost illustrators, N.C. Wyeth painted adventure scenes with unforgettable characters. Bring back memories???
Christina's World, 1948
Andrew Wyeth
The Son: Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009
Christina’s World is one of the most familiar American works of the 20th century and is currently on display at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The woman crawling through the tawny grass was the artist’s neighbor, Christina, who was crippled by polio. Wyeth said his challenge was to “do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most would consider hopeless.”
That Blue-Eyed Goat, 2011
(c) Jamie Wyeth
Adelson Galleries
The Grandson: Jamie Wyeth, born 1946
Having grown up with his famous grandfather’s images of knights and pirates, and his father’s poignant paintings, Jamie Wyeth was determined to go his own way.
Beyond the scenic seascapes, he has spent decades portraying a darker, more disturbing side of Maine that tourists rarely see…unlikely subjects painted with his distinctive vision of life in the raw.
Jamie Wyeth’s paintings are found in major museums in America.
You must not miss this video of Jamie Wyeth painting! The best!
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3 Terrific Tips on Showing Art in your Living Space
Ever wonder how to best show your art…those pieces you have lovingly collected over the years? Top San Francisco designer, Linda Applewhite, presents 3 terrific ideas!
Linda Applewhite’s Design Tips
Play With Color and Texture
To make artwork stand out in a room! Combine neutral toned art with a colorful interior as in this San Francisco loft. The black and white artwork, Street Scene, by Danish artist Gugger Petter pops amidst the reds, blues, golds and green, yet relates beautifully with the textured shag checkerboard carpet.
Good Design Repeats Itself
Make artwork come alive! This Joan Miró lithograph, Trace #5, hanging above the custom made desk relates in feeling and movement to the desk. A powerful statement when teamed together.
Hang Artwork to Create Harmony and Surprise
This linocut, White Eyes, by Pablo Picasso looks stunning over the fireplace surround. The pairing of the elegant Spanish gold leaf frame and rustic wood mantle offer an interesting juxtaposition while the colors in the wood and artwork sing to one another.
Linda Applewhite is an artist, writer, spokesperson and renowned interior designer based in San Francisco.
To see more of Linda Applewhite’s design work visit her website at www.lindaapplewhite.com
Robert De Niro, Sr. – The Artist
Did you know that Robert De Niro’s father was a brilliant artist?
Last Painting, 1985-1993
Robert De Niro Sr.
At last, one of art’s unsung heroes is being honored!…and by his son, Robert De Niro, Jr.
The elder De Niro was a powerful young painter right in the middle of the rough and tumble art world of the 1940’s and 50’s. He was heavily influenced by French painting. Matisse was his muse.
Nude in Chair, 1970-1971
Robert De Niro, Sr.
Gutsy and sophisticated, lush, vivid color, luxuriant nudes…an almost animal heat radiates from his canvases. De Niro, Sr. was on the rise.
Uh oh. The art world suddenly changed.
Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and the Abstract Expressionists came along. Painting was about the process (such as Pollock’s drip paintings) and not necessarily about the subject matter.
Jackson Pollock Drip Painting, 1956
De Niro, Sr. had integrity. He remained true to his own vision. He was not an Abstract Expressionist. Discouraged, he left New York and lived in self-exile in Paris.
Today, the son honors his father, as Robert De Niro, Jr. gifts us with his father’s work again.
Robert De Niro, Jr. talks about his father in this HBO Documentary video trailer.
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Showing in New York!
Robert De Niro, Sr. Paintings and Drawings, 1948 – 1989 Exhibition
June 6 – July 31, 2014
DC MOORE GALLERY
www.dcmooregallery.com