The prolific, self-taught artist is the subject of a new documentary. See it at the True West Cinema Festival.
BY DANA OLAND - doland@idahostatesman.com
Idaho Statesman / Edition Date: 08/09/08
Idaho artist James Castle is an enigma in the art world. Profoundly deaf since birth, he didn't learn to sign, read or write in a conventional manner, but instead communicated through the eloquent vehicle of his art.
During his lifetime (1899-1977), he created an amazing and huge body of work that chronicles his experience growing up with his family on the American frontier.
His work is the subject of a one-hour documentary, "James Castle: Portrait of an Artist," that will premiere Saturday at the True West Cinema Festival, which runs through Sunday at The Flicks.
"How did he get there?" asks the film's director and writer, Jeffrey Wolf. "In the middle of nowhere, this guy rises up, and what's really amazing is that his work fits in with all the other stuff that's out there at this time: Jasper Johns, Anselm Kieffer, (Andy) Warhol. I don't think he's copying them, but he is tapped in to the same influences."
Wolf explores Castle's work and its growing presence in the art world through the voices of his surviving family members, Idaho and international art critics, and others who have been inspired by Castle's story and work.
"We started with the people we knew, Sandy Harthorn (at the Boise Art Museum) and Jacqueline Crist (of J Crist Gallery, who represents Castle's work), and then we wanted to push the envelope of the art world," Wolf said.
Wolf also is co-founder of the Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists. He will be in Boise to introduce the film Saturday and participate in a panel discussion on Sunday.
The film is a labor of love for Wolf and a contrast to his other work editing films such as "The Ref," "Holes," "Billy Madison" and the soon-to-be-released "The Longshots," an inspirational story about 11-year-old Jasmine Plummer (Keke Palmer), who became the first girl to play in a Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history. Ice Cube plays her coach.
Wolf and foundation co-founders Sheldon and Jill Bonovitz want to shine a light on self-taught artists through documentary film.
Untrained artists often are referred to as "outsider" artists because they exist outside the artistic mainstream. They often work in obscurity during their lifetimes and are discovered long after they have died. The goal is to put them in context with the more traditional art world, Wolf said.
Castle became the first of 10 planned film projects three years ago when Wolf realized some of Castle's family members were still living.
"And the narrative of his life is so interesting," Wolf said.
The list of people willing and wanting to talk about James Castle is impressive.
It turns out that luminary American contemporary painter Terry Winters collects Castle's work. So does conductor and pianist Christian Zacharias.
Robert Storr, former curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City - who is now the dean of Yale University's School of Art and who was named one of the most influential people in art - has studied Castle and finds him fascinating. So does John Yau, a Fulbright scholar, historian and poet.
CASTLE IN IDAHO
Born in 1899, Castle grew up on the Idaho frontier in Garden Valley. His family later moved to Star and finally to Boise where Castle died in 1977.
He was deaf and mute, considered illiterate and referred to as "afflicted" by some family members.
But he also was a brilliant, self-taught artist with a prolific creative life.
Castle was a creative scavenger. He drew with a sharpened stick dipped in a mixture of soot and saliva. He drew on matchbook covers, and milk and ice cream cartons. His parents ran a general store and post office, so envelopes were a favorite canvas.
He made artist's books, drawing over the pages of his sister's schoolbooks or anything he could get his hands on. He constructed figures from cardboard and string, assemblages of bits of paper and other found objects.
He gained local notoriety with art exhibitions at the then Boise Art Gallery during his lifetime, but it wasn't until decades after his death that he became widely known.
Castle's work is now included in major museum collections throughout the United States, including the American Folk Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the High Museum in Atlanta, Ga.; the Boise Art Museum; and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Castle will receive a retrospective in October in Philadelphia.
Castle created thousands of pieces of art. Each is individually intriguing, but collectively they are overwhelmingly profound. Toward the end of the film, Wolf shows 40 bundles of works that have never been opened.
"He was amazingly prolific. You open one box and two more open behind it. By the end (of the story) you see his entire body of work. If you started with that volume and scope, your heads would fall off," Wolf said.
THE MYTH AND THE MAN
Over the years, many myths have evolved about Castle. That was something Wolf wanted to get away from.
"I'm not a collector. I learned about the work when I wasn't trying to get it out there because I owned it. I am trying to reveal what was special about it and understand it," he said. "I wanted to get away from the mythology created by people who were trying to sell the work, protect it or whatever, and get into what the material is. Some would say we're creating a new mythology, but I think we're trying to debunk those ideas."
One important discovery the film makes is that Castle spent about five years at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind in Gooding. It had been widely believed that Castle spent less than a year in school.
There also have been conflicts over the years among family members, gallery owners, curators and academics about Castle's mental status.
"We don't believe we can diagnose," Wolf said. "If you notice, the film is very democratic. We just put it out there and if one wants to make a guess, that's great. But that's not the intention. What is fascinating is that his family kept everything. Who knows how many artists like him there were, whose work is gone and forgotten."
But that is all water under the bridge.
"You have to take yourself out of Idaho and understand how the rest of the world is looking at this material. They don't know the nuances of who did or said what in the past."
The most important part of Castle's story is that it accentuates the human need to create and communicate, Wolf said.
"The individual need to create is the real story," Wolf said. "A lot of people like to say that everyone is an artist. I don't think that, but art influences us every day of our lives. It changes how you look at the world and think."
If you go
WHAT: True West Cinema Festival screening of "James Castle: Portrait of an Artist," with introduction by director and writer Jeffrey Wolf.
WHEN/WHERE: 5 p.m. Saturday, The Flicks, 646 Fulton St., Boise.
TICKETS: $8.50 at the door, or use your festival Quick Draw pass.
WHAT: Panel discussion about James Castle and his work with Jeffrey Wolf and Boise Art Museum curator Sandy Harthorn.
WHEN/WHERE: 3:30 p.m. Sunday, The Flicks.
COST: Free.