The Wiegand Gallery, part of the Notre
Dame de Namur University in Belmont, is proud to announce the West Coast
debut of four of the country’s most notable Outsider artists in The Roots of the Spirit: Lonnie Holley, Mr. Imagination, Charlie Lucas and Kevin Sampson. Curated by Martha Henry and Robert Poplack,
Director of the Wiegand Gallery, the exhibition sees the foursome’s
work reunited for the first time since a controversial 2011 Venice
Biennale showing that occurred despite having their invitation to
represent the American Folk Art Museum within the framework of the
international art world suddenly cancelled. The Roots of the Spirit will
include works created while they were in Venice, as well as throughout
their careers.
Lonnie Holley, the subject of a recent
piece in The New York Times Magazine that tagged the artist as “the
insider’s outsider,” and noted the expanding breadth of the artist’s
work—which recently has included music and recording—will create a site
specific work derived from materials found on the university grounds as
part of the exhibition.
The genesis of The Roots of the Spirit
goes back to 2011 when the four artists were invited to participate in
the 54th Venice Biennale by the American Folk Art Museum in New York and
Benetton in Treviso, Italy to create large site-specific installations
at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
The inclusion of the four self-taught
Outsider artists during the 2011 Biennale promised to be revolutionary
because it offered the opportunity to exhibit within a broad
international context, all while finding themselves excluded
domestically from the American art canon. Due to an unexpected loss of
funding, the invitation was rescinded, which drew coverage in the art
press, including Artnet, Art Forum, Art in America , ArtClaire, Art Info
and others. But the artists—under the aegis of gallery director and
curator Martha Henry who against all odds and without funding ultimately
managed to secure a venue in an 11th century garden—decided they would
still attend.
While Lonnie Holley, Mr. Imagination
(Gregory Warmack), Charlie Lucas (Tin Man), and Kevin Sampson have all
achieved renown as self-taught African American artists, they refer to
themselves simply as American artists. Born in the mid 20th century,
they came of age during the Civil Rights movement when deep and abiding
racial discrimination was the norm. Lacking opportunities, education,
and artist role models, they managed to become artists despite great
social and economic obstacles. “Their artworks express their African and
American culture, their everyday lives, dreams, and aspirations,” says
Martha Henry. “When we look into the mirror of the black experience we
have a better understanding of American culture, values and
spirituality.
Black artists have played a vital role
in distinguishing our culture throughout the world, indeed the black
experience is so interwoven into our larger culture that it defines much
of what the world perceives today as American.”
Notions of divine intervention and
spiritual renewal are at the heart of much of the foursome’s work. It is
art that honors ancestors as an antidote to death and private grief.
Witness Kevin Sampson’s shrines to deceased friends and relatives; the
ancestor thrones of Lonnie Holley and Mr. Imagination; and Charlie
Lucas’ metal sculptures that honor his grandparents by their material
and method.
Viewing themselves as caretakers of the
earth in some profound way, the artists harvest the overflowing debris
of contemporary civilization and transform it into art as a means of
preserving the rescued materials to teach future generations. Out of the
enormous variety of free materials ready to be recycled, the artists
choose those that exhibit the potential for being re-instilled with
purpose and meaning. “The processes of painting, assemblage,
construction and found object sculpture reveal restless minds capable of
expression that ranges from the serious to playful,” says Gallery
Director Robert Poplack. “The work shows an openness to the spirit of
imagination as well as a desire to entertain. Their immersive, layered
environments—often located in their yards and inside their homes—need to
be experienced to be fully appreciated.”
The materials and methods practiced by
these four virtuosos place them squarely within the wider context of the
international contemporary art world. Their use of assemblage, found
object sculpture and installation invite comparisons to contemporary art
practices dating back from the beginning of the 20th century when
Picasso and Braque, inspired by African art, began to use found objects
in their work. These ideas were further developed in the mid 20th
century by many artists including Tinguely, Arman, Beuys, and
Rauschenberg, and continue to be expanded today by Willie Cole, David
Hammons and many other contemporary artists.
While the regular use of recycled
materials puts all four at the heart of the Eco Art movement, Kevin
Sampson and Lonnie Holley’s art, loaded with political and social
commentary, place them in a long line of U.S. socio-political artists.
“As boundaries break down between self-taught and formally educated
artists,” says Henry, “I felt it important to celebrate the achievements
of these four who emerged from the depths of personal despair to make
valuable contributions to the American visual experience.”
Their work can be found in many major
American museum collections including: American Folk Art Museum, New
York, NY; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; American Visionary Museum,
Baltimore, MD; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; High
Museum, Atlanta, GA; and INTUIT: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider
Art, Chicago, IL among others. \
A catalog will accompany the exhibition
#kevinblythesampson
