Whom You Know: Exhibition of Works by James Castle at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Through February 1, 2015 Our Coverage Sponsored by The Westin Georgetown, Washington D.C.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Exhibition of Works by James Castle at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Through February 1, 2015 Our Coverage Sponsored by The Westin Georgetown, Washington D.C.

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James Castle (1899-1977) was one of the most enigmatic American artists of the 20th century. For nearly seven decades, he created an expansive body of complex and layered work while living in rural Idaho without access to traditional written language. His artworks represent a highly personal way of navigating his world.

"Untitled: The Art of James Castle," organized by Nicholas R. Bell, the Fleur and Charles Bresler Senior Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art, will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through Feb. 1, 2015.

The exhibition celebrates a major acquisition in 2013 of 54 pieces by Castle; the entire acquisition is on view in the exhibition, and the museum now holds one of the largest collections of Castle's work. The acquisition was made possible by the James Castle Collection and Archive and the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.

"James Castle's drawings and paintings confirm that art offers a fundamental way to know ourselves," said Betsy Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. "He worked for decades in the rural west, surrounded by family but with little experience beyond his community and with no formal art training. But his discerning eye found subjects all around, creating an extended portrait of his world."

Castle devoted himself daily to intensive art-making using materials gathered around his rural Idaho home, including packaging, advertisements, string and soot. The resulting farm scenes, interiors, stylized people, constructions and charts of words and symbols comprise an elaborate and unmistakable representation of his everyday life and surroundings.

Castle's artworks-all untitled and undated-served as the primary means of reflection and expression for an artist who was born profoundly deaf, without a conventional way to communicate with others.

"At once inviting and inscrutable, Castle's art gives us access to a world navigated without language, though not the key to unlock it," said Bell. "Ultimately, grappling with these drawings reveals the limits of our understanding as well as one artist's extraordinary vision of the ordinary."

Since Castle's work first came to light in the 1950s, much attention has focused on the unusual circumstances of his life. Although Castle lived in a geographically remote area, he was exposed to mainstream culture in childhood when his parents served as postmasters of Garden Valley, Idaho. As he developed his art, mass mailings and other printed materials provided Castle with a window on the world, as well as examples of design and the materials to create. This exhibition moves beyond biography to appreciate the remarkable quality of Castle's vision and to question how the works themselves elucidate the artist's world.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with a foreword by Alexander Nemerov, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University, and essays by Bell and Leslie Umberger, curator of folk and self-taught art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Bell explores Castle's landscapes and interiors in an effort to grasp the artist's experience of the fundamental elements of space, time and memory. Umberger's essay charts Castle's complex reception in the art world as gallerists, curators and collectors have balanced an appreciation of his work with the complex circumstances of his life. The book, co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and D Giles Limited, will be for sale ($49.95) in the museum store and online.

Free Public Programs

Bell will moderate a panel discussion Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6:30 p.m. with Lynne Cooke, senior curator, special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art; Jacqueline Crist, managing partner, James Castle Collection and Archive; Frank Del Deo, Del Deo & Barzune LLC; and Umberger. A screening of the documentary James Castle: Portrait of an Artist will take place Monday, Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m.; a discussion with director Jeffrey Wolf, Bell and Umberger follows. Information about additional related programs will be available at americanart.si.edu/calendar/.

The museum is offering 30-minute gallery talks presented by deaf gallery guides in American Sign Language in the exhibition Thursday, Oct. 9, at 5:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m., as part of itsArt Signs program. Additional tours will be added during the run of the exhibition; see the museum's website, americanart.si.edu/education/asl/, for details.

Credit

"Untitled: The Art of James Castle"is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Endowment.

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than three centuries. Its National Historic Landmark building is located at Eighth and F streets N.W., above the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail station. Museum hours are11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free. Follow the museum on Twitter, YouTube,Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, iTunes U and ArtBabble.Museum information (recorded):(202) 633-7970. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Website: americanart.si.edu.

James Castle, Untitled, n.d., found paper, string, and wood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Castle Collection and Archive and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.27.1

James Castle, Untitled, n.d., found paper, soot, and color of unknown origin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Castle Collection and Archive and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.27.2

James Castle, Untitled, n.d., found paper, soot, color of unknown origin, wheat paste, and string, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Castle Collection and Archive and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.27.10

James Castle, Untitled, n.d., found paper, soot, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Castle Collection and Archive and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.27.18 (Recto)

James Castle, Untitled, n.d., found paper, soot, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Castle Collection and Archive and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.27.34

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