For the Outsider Art Fair of 2022, Hirschl & Adler Modern is pleased to present a curated selection of top examples by artists in the gallery’s self-taught program. The feature wall will present multiple, fresh-to-market, works by Bill Traylor flanked by two important figure constructions by James Castle presented in the round. Castle and Traylor are among the most celebrated self-taught artists in the world today. Each invented novel approaches to rendering human figures and animals using abstract principles and an animated sense of dynamism.
We will also feature the enigmatic Missouri artist Edward Deeds, a longtime patient at State Hospital No. 3 in the small town of Nevada, Missouri, whose work is represented exclusively by the gallery. Mostly escapist fare, these carefully drawn, beguiling, renderings of people and places are fantastical, at times surreal, but also infused by the artist’s own experiences. The unlikely discovery of Deeds’ work in 2006 is considered one of the greatest additions to the field in a generation. His work is prominently featured in the exhibition, Multitudes, currently on view at the American Folk-Art Museum, New York.
Our presentation at the fair will include the commercial debut of Mary P. Corbett, whose work can also be found in Multitudes at the American Folk-Art Museum. Corbett lived her entire life in Delaware County on the family farm until an injury triggered her permanent move to a nursing facility in 2013 at age 83. Two boxes containing 714 drawings—mostly double-sided colored pencil and watercolor renderings on letter size paper—were found in her attic and sold in an estate sale while she was still living. Corbett created these pictures during her years as a solitary teenage girl and young woman, between the age of 12 and 21. They encompass a ten-year practice, from 1942 to 1951, loosely divided into three time periods that indicate progression and development. Themes uniformly relate to the adventures of The Catville Kids. The cast of characters is represented in scenes of daily life, including parties, romantic exchanges, group reunions, and other forms of leisure. Corbett’s narrative combines her own experiences growing up on the farm, with an aesthetic backdrop drawn from American popular culture – films, children’s literature, and TV shows from the first quarter of the 20th century, like Hit the Saddle (1937), Ramrod (1947), and The Street with no Name (1948). A recurrent character is the masked Lone Ranger, who fought outlaws in the American Old West. In multiple scenes, he interacts with a gallery of more than 24 fictional characters inspired by Corbett’s farm animals and family members. Another remarkable feature is the presence of human-animal hybrids – generally cats and dogs – casually interacting with the other subjects. These may be references to Corbett’s beloved pets on the farm, relationships that animated her relatively reclusive life.
Finally, we will present new work by Jeanne Brousseau, a living self-taught artist based in Maine. She and her work came to light in just the past few years. Making drawings is a deeply private endeavor for the artist who took decades to finally share them with friends and eventually the public. They are vivid, strikingly imaginative drawings of shape-shifting humans and elaborate beasts both adorable and menacing. Through these strange but undeniably beautiful forms, Brousseau tells the story of abuse she suffered as a child that she repressed until middle age. With a deft hand she channels her inner child-like innocence, marshals color and beauty to work through her deep trauma all to heal and ultimately overcome it.
March 3 – 6, 2022
Metropolitan Pavilion
125 W 18th St
Hours
VIP & Press Preview:
Thursday, March 3rd: 12–4pm
Vernissage:
Thursday, March 3rd: 4–8pm
Open to the Public:
Friday, March 4th: 11am-8pm
Saturday, March 5th: 11am-8pm
Sunday, March 6th: 11am-6pm
For more information on the fair, including ticket purchase, please click here