WILLIAM CRAWFORD
"selected works from the 90s"
a Zine by INNEN publishing
Friday, 29 January 2016
Saturday, 23 January 2016
20 MINUTOS ON OUR NEW EXHIBITION: PROPHET ROYAL ROBERTSON
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| Prophet Royal Robertson, The Black Commander, 1993, felt-tip pen and ball point pen on cardboard, 50,3 x 37,4 cm. Courtesy Delmes & Zander |
"El arte rabioso y misógino de Royal Robertson, paranoico y profeta del apocalipsis
"No se admiten putas divorciadas". Uno de los carteles pintados a mano por el autoproclamado Profeta Royal Robertson
(1936-1997) es decisivo en su incorrección para entender la obra
obsesiva de un creador que habitó la locura e hizo de ella el tema único
de su obra. Situado fuera de los movimientos académicos o de
vanguardia, el artista negro estadounidense construyó una crónica de la
rabia, la misoginia y la paranoia.
Convencido de que su exmujer, Adell Brent —que lo dejó por otro tras 19 años de matrimonio y 11 hijos
a los que se llevó con ella— dirigía un complot conspirativo de alcance
mundial, Robertson, que se había ganado la vida como dibujante
ambulante de carteles comerciales, se encerró en sí mismo a partir de
1964, tras la separación, y se dedicó a pintar la crónica de sus
aberrantes visiones en la casucha en la que vivía en Luisiana.
Arte en los márgenes
La exposición God the Creator, Atomic Bombs and Crazy Adell (Dios el Creador, bombas atómicas y la loca Adell), desde el 22 de enero al 5 de marzo en la galería Delmes & Zander
de Berlín, un espacio dedicado al arte situado en los márgenes de los
postulados habituales o, como en este caso, claramente fuera de ellos,
presenta una selección de las obras proféticas y enloquecidas de un
pintor ensimismado en la paranoia, la misoginia, los viajes espaciales y
la creencia de que el apocalipsis estaba tocando la puerta encarnado en Adell.
Los vecinos se quejaban de los ataques verbales a las mujeres que pasaban ante su chabola La etiqueta de arte outsider —el firmado por creadores, a menudo psicóticos, autistas o enfermos mentales, que no hacen ninguna concesión al público, la moda o el mercado y que llevan la imaginación a extremos incómodos que las academias no tolerarían y ponen nervioso al observador— es totalmente de recibo en el caso del Profeta
Roberston, sobre todo a partir de la ruptura del matrimonio. Los
vecinos se quejaban de su comportamiento y de los ataques verbales a las
mujeres que pasaban ante su chabola.
Murió a los 60 tras un ataque al corazón
En
algún momento se llegó a hablar de un diagnóstico: esquizofrenia
paranoide, pero nadie se hizo cargo del tratamiento y Roberston nunca
dispuso de medios —probablemente tampoco de ganas o voluntad— para
ponerse en manos de los médicos o las soluciones químicas. Su terapia
era la pintura y a ella se dedicó con febril y obsesiva intensidad hasta
que murió a los 60 años tras sufrir un ataque al corazón. Nunca hizo daño a nadie más allá de unos cuantos aullidos malsonantes y descorteses.
Advertencias sobre los peligros del adulterio y la fornicación
La exposición muestra varias decenas de carteles y pinturas que
Roberston producía con una premura machacona con los materiales que
tenía a mano, encontraba o le regalaban: como soporte usaba cartulina,
papel o madera, y como materiales, rotuladores, témperas, lápices de colores, bolígrafos y purpurina.
Hay denuncias directas a la "traición de su esposa", visiones
alucinatorias sobre viajes espaciales, predicciones de un cercano
apocalipsis, citas bíblicas, advertencias sobre los peligros del
adulterio y la fornicación, arengas contra las "putas adúlteras", las
"cónyuges infieles", las "rameras" y los "hijos bastardos que han
perdido el orgullo"...
Cabaña arrasada por el Huracán Andrew
La
rabia misógina de Robertson fue el centro de una prolija narración de
centenares de piezas que abarrotaban la cabaña y el patio de la pequeña
propiedad. Cada centímetro del interior estaba cubierto por escenas
vitales, casi todas interpretaciones autobiográficas y lamentos sobre
las "traiciones" de la exesposa. Robertson, que firmaba las obras como Profeta o Patriarca, no dejaba entrar a cualquiera en el lugar, que consideraba un "santuario". En 1992 el Huracán Andrew
arrasó el lugar y, aunque varios coleccionistas ayudaron en los
trabajos de recuperación, muchas de las obras se perdieron para siempre.
Seres divinos, extraterrestres, monstruos con parecido a Godzilla y templos futuristas
Las piezas más llamativas no son las diatribas de tono bíblico, sino
los cuadros que representan el universo enigmático de un hombre con el
alma poblada por heridas pero la conciencia, en su opinión, sancionada
por dios. Algunos retratos son de una bella delicadeza
—parecen tableros de altares religiosos— y los paisajes, en los que
dominan extrañas combinaciones de amarillos, resultan cautivadores y
remiten a la ciencia ficción, con naves espaciales tripuladas
alternativamente por seres divinos o extraterrestres, monstruos con
parecido a Godzilla y templos de arquitectura futurista."
For further information click HERE
Prophet Royal Robertson
God the Creator, Atomic Bombs and Crazy Adell
January 22 - March 5, 2016
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 37, 10178 Berlin
Friday, 15 January 2016
Prophet Royal Robertson God the Creator, Atomic Bombs and Crazy Adell
Prophet Royal Robertson
God the Creator, Atomic Bombs and Crazy Adell
January 22 – March 5, 2016
Opening: Friday, 22.01., 6–9 pmJanuary 22 – March 5, 2016
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| Prophet Royal Robertson, I See My Soul Did Journey Away, 1991, felt-tip pen, ball point penm enamel paint, acrylic and glitter on poster board, 71 x 56 cm. Courtesy Delmes & Zander |
Delmes & Zander I Berlin will present for the first time in Europe a one-man show with works by Prophet Royal Robertson.
Self-proclaimed “Prophet” Royal Robertson (1930 - 1997) spent most of his life in Louisiana. As a teenager, he left to travel along the West Coast, but returned after a few years to take care of his elderly mother. In 1955 he married Adell Brent, but after nineteen years his wife left him and took their twelve children to live in Texas.
Robertson, who had been a sign painter by trade, began to decorate the inside and outside of his house with hand-made signs and paintings denouncing his wife's betrayal in apocalyptic verse. Over the next decade, his misogynistic rage gave way to an obsessive conviction that he was the victim of an evil female conspiracy. Giving voice to the hallucinatory visions he had of space travel and aliens that predicted the apocalypse through complex numerological formula, he warned the world about the dangers of adultery and fornication, of "adulterous whores," unfaithful spouses, and “bastards” who had lost all pride. Many of this works include calendars chronicling memories of his unfaithful wife and their destroyed marriage in brief journal notations scribbled in each date's block. A preoccupation with numerology and biblical prophecies of earth's final days as found in the book of Revelation is pervasive. Robertson's rant-repertoire from an enigmatical universe is based on biblical prophesies, numerical formulas, and visions of dream houses and space travel merging such disparate themes as messianic eschatology, futurism and science fiction.
Prophet Royal Robertson is represented in renowed collections worldwide such as the American Folk Art Museum, New York; the Smithsonian Museum Of American Art, Washington an the Treger Saint Sivestre Collection, Porto.
Robertson, who had been a sign painter by trade, began to decorate the inside and outside of his house with hand-made signs and paintings denouncing his wife's betrayal in apocalyptic verse. Over the next decade, his misogynistic rage gave way to an obsessive conviction that he was the victim of an evil female conspiracy. Giving voice to the hallucinatory visions he had of space travel and aliens that predicted the apocalypse through complex numerological formula, he warned the world about the dangers of adultery and fornication, of "adulterous whores," unfaithful spouses, and “bastards” who had lost all pride. Many of this works include calendars chronicling memories of his unfaithful wife and their destroyed marriage in brief journal notations scribbled in each date's block. A preoccupation with numerology and biblical prophecies of earth's final days as found in the book of Revelation is pervasive. Robertson's rant-repertoire from an enigmatical universe is based on biblical prophesies, numerical formulas, and visions of dream houses and space travel merging such disparate themes as messianic eschatology, futurism and science fiction.
Prophet Royal Robertson is represented in renowed collections worldwide such as the American Folk Art Museum, New York; the Smithsonian Museum Of American Art, Washington an the Treger Saint Sivestre Collection, Porto.
Prophet Royal Robertson
God the Creator, Atomic Bombs and Crazy Adell
January 22 - March 5, 2016
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 37, 10178 Berlin
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
GALERIE SUSANNE ZANDER WITH NEW GALLERY NAME
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Gallery
owners Nicole Delmes and Susanne Zander, 2016. Photo: Johannes Post
|
After more that 10 years of business partnership, gallery owners Nicole Delmes and Susanne Zander have decided to act jointly as namesake of the gallery. The Berlin space, founded 2014, has operated under the name Delmes & Zander I Berlin from the onset. Galerie Susanne Zander will from now on also go by the name of Delmes & Zander.
Galerie Susanne Zander was founded in 1988 in Cologne. Nicole Delmes has been co-owner since 2005.
Since its beginning, the activities of the gallery have focused on the discovery and promotion of unique artistic positions beyond popular trends. Origin of the exhibition program are Art Brut and Outsider Art. With their exploration of borderline areas, Delmes & Zander have systematically expanded prevailing concepts of art. In recent years, the gallery has increasingly presented works by anonymous artists. Exhibitions such as “Artist Unknown”, “Evidence of Ecstasy” and “The Erotic Outsider” examine such distinctive territories as pseudosciences, eroticism and voyeurism, and the occult, and thereby encompass new thematic complexes.
A further focal point of the gallery’s activity is the reappraisal and preservation of artists’ estates including those of Horst Ademeit, Adelhyd van Bender, and “Margret – Chronicle of an Affair,” a project which received great international attention. The conceptual emphasis in the gallery’s exhibitions raises questions about the accepted practices of curating, reception, and the production and historical contextualization of singular artistic positions, which cannot always be clearly categorized and yet are equitable with the traditional strategies of contemporary art.
The decision to rename the Cologne gallery after 28 years is, according to the gallery owners, “a consequent development which reflects the consistent program of both the Cologne and Berlin galleries.”
www.delmes-zander.de
info@delmes-zander.de
Thursday, 7 January 2016
COSA MENTALE. IMAGINARIES OF TELEPATHY OF THE 20TH-CENTURY ART/// at Centre Pompidou-Metz
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Susan Hiller, Homage to Marcel Duchamp: Aura (Blue Boy), 2011, © Adagp Paris 2015.
Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery, London. |
COSA MENTALE. IMAGINARIES OF TELEPATHY OF THE 20TH-CENTURY ART
until 28 March 2016
A MUST SEE at Centre Pompidou-Metz if you´re around!
featuring works of:
Anna and Berhard Blume, Marcel Duchamp, Susan Hiller, Hilma af Klint,
Len Lye, Tony Oursler, Sigmar Polke, Ted Serios, Rudolf Steiner and many
more...
info:
"Cosa mentale is a unique exhibition that
offers a re-reading of the history or art from 1990 to modern day by
exploring artists’ fascination with the direct transmission of thought
and emotion. It invites the spectator to re-live one of the unexpected
adventures of modernity: telepathic art in the 20th century. This
exhibition traces a chronological path from symbolism to conceptual art
with a collection of some one hundred works by major artists, ranging
from Edvard Munch to Vassily Kandinsky, and from Joan Miró to Sigmar
Polke. These artists provide innovative ways of communicating with
spectators that take us beyond conventional linguistic codes.
The exhibition enables the spectator to understand how, throughout the 20th century, attempts to give material and visible form to thought processes coincide with the experiments of avant-garde artists. This fantasy of a direct projection of thought not only had a decisive impact on the birth of abstraction but also influenced surrealism and its obsession with the collective sharing of creation and, in the post war period, it gave rise to numerous visual and sound installations inspired by the revolution in information technology, leading to the declaration of “the dematerialisation of art” in conceptual practices.
The exhibition begins with the invention of the term “telepathy” in 1882, at a time when the study of psychology interacted with rapid developments in telecommunications. Endeavours ranged from the creation of “photographs of thought” in 1895 to the first “encephalograms” in 1924 (the year when the Surrealist Manifesto was published) and it was the actual activity of the brain which was to be shown in all its transparency, which encouraged artists to reject the conventions of representation by suppressing all restrictions of translation. Telepathy was far from remaining an obscure paranormal fantasy and consistently intrigued and enthralled artists throughout the 20th century. Always present in the world of science fiction, it resurfaced in psychedelic and conceptual art in the period from 1960 to 1970 before reappearing today in contemporary practices enraptured by technologies of “shared knowledge” and the rapid development of neuroscience."
www.centrepompidou-metz.fr/de/cosa-mentale-bildwelten-der-telepathie-der-kunst-des-20jahrhunderts
The exhibition enables the spectator to understand how, throughout the 20th century, attempts to give material and visible form to thought processes coincide with the experiments of avant-garde artists. This fantasy of a direct projection of thought not only had a decisive impact on the birth of abstraction but also influenced surrealism and its obsession with the collective sharing of creation and, in the post war period, it gave rise to numerous visual and sound installations inspired by the revolution in information technology, leading to the declaration of “the dematerialisation of art” in conceptual practices.
The exhibition begins with the invention of the term “telepathy” in 1882, at a time when the study of psychology interacted with rapid developments in telecommunications. Endeavours ranged from the creation of “photographs of thought” in 1895 to the first “encephalograms” in 1924 (the year when the Surrealist Manifesto was published) and it was the actual activity of the brain which was to be shown in all its transparency, which encouraged artists to reject the conventions of representation by suppressing all restrictions of translation. Telepathy was far from remaining an obscure paranormal fantasy and consistently intrigued and enthralled artists throughout the 20th century. Always present in the world of science fiction, it resurfaced in psychedelic and conceptual art in the period from 1960 to 1970 before reappearing today in contemporary practices enraptured by technologies of “shared knowledge” and the rapid development of neuroscience."
www.centrepompidou-metz.fr/de/cosa-mentale-bildwelten-der-telepathie-der-kunst-des-20jahrhunderts
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