This year, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will host a traveling exhibition of the works of James Castle, who never learned to speak or write but who communicated through art made from spit and soot:
The Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired 54 works by Castle, who lived from
1899 to 1977, last year. … Castle’s art isn’t exactly obscure — the Philadelphia Museum of Art held a retrospective in 2008 and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid staged another in 2011 — but it’s not too well-known outside the art world. And it’s gritty and strange, scrapped together with found ads and packaging, abstract figures from Castle’s life alongside jittery landscapes of rural Idaho shaded with stove-soot; his handmade books are full of arcane symbols and allusive narratives. Maybe bringing this art out to more rural places like those Castle was responding to in Idaho will give it a context that hasn’t always been there. Maybe it will allow Castle’s work to start being discussed as less of a wonder and more of a real reflection of American art. If nothing else, it’s encouraging that the Smithsonian American Art Museum is not just continuing to make these significant acquisitions, but also to put them in the context of the greater art history of the country.
(Image of “Untitled” by James Castle courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum)
The Dish 