Friday, January 7, 2005
Abandoned Art
An exhibit of thrift store finds


Read the article in the Courier-Journal here!

This show highlighted works of art discovered in
trash dumpsters, thrift stores, yard sales, flea
markets, etc. Some of the works may elicit a chuckle,
while others may leave you astonished that anyone
could abandon such masterpieces.

Conventional art exhibits try to make the works more
interesting to the viewer by providing background
information, biographies, histories, manifestos, etc.
But absolutely nothing is known about who these artists
were and how they lived, what their motives were for
painting, or even what the paintings are titled.
These mysteries lend a gravitas to the
lost classics of these unknown masters, whose creations
are displayed without context, without irony.

Music played at the reception: strange and disturbing
home-recorded cassette tapes also found in thrift stores
and yard sales, courtesy of the Kentucky Talent
Foundation.

Here are images some of the pieces from the exhibit. Click
on each for a larger image. Place mouse pointer over each
for description and analysis by Jeffrey Scott Holland (doesn't
work in Netscape).

This painting was signed Carol Strother and dated 1966, which places its ultra-psychedelic imagery just ahead of its time. The paint is slathered on in a thick impasto that would have made Van Gogh proud. The severed bloodshot eyes, the 'drinking like a fish' metaphor, the cigarette in the ashtray (which everyone mistakes for a hunk of cheese)... it all adds up to a very strong warning against the evils of substance abuse, One can only imagine what Carol thought of the LSD craze that swept the nation the following summer.
Though her brushstrokes may be tentative and overworked, the artist had a very confident sense of marketing: a printed sticker on the back proclaims to be 'An Alice Davidson Original', apparently mass-produced for retail sale, God knows where. And as a lifelong devotee of the cartoon duck, I can tell you that Alice has inadvertently tapped into something in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Also note the feather remnant - it once had an actual feather glued to its tail.
This Boston Terrier, which seems to be the runaway favorite of everyone who's seen this collection, is apparently quite fond of the woman's shoe in the foreground. At least I think it's a shoe. Perhaps it's a moccasin. Or a burrito.
Two depictions of the predator cat here: one in a post-Rousseau style (see next image), the other post-Disney. This work uses a sparse technique with cheap Wal-Mart craft paint and an ordinary ball-point pen.
And here's the post-Rousseau one. Rendered with surprising detail for its small size, actually (approx. 7 inches tall) and given some ostentatious snazz with its copper metallic paint background.
As a rule, Clowns are always frightening, of course. But this one, with its craggy facial featires peeking from under the greasepaint and its red pulpy-looking mouth, takes the proverbial cake. Notice the David Bowie eyes. Also notice the little dark maroon stains that look like blood. Let's not think about it.
This pair of paint-by-numbers dogs shows the work of an artist who, I believe, deviated from the assigned color scheme in order to render the backgrounds such a hot hue of Kermit green and their fleshy elements such a Pepto pink. I applaud their vision, cautiously. Most disturbing to me is that the dogs were originally seemingly intended to be rendered in a sketchy way, with the bottoms of their torsos trailing off to nothing. But the artist chose to render the bottom portions of them in the same shade of dark green as the shadow, making the final effect that of two severed dog heads floating in mid-air.
This pair of paint-by-numbers dogs shows the work of an artist who, I believe, deviated from the assigned color scheme in order to render the backgrounds such a hot hue of Kermit green and their fleshy elements such a Pepto pink. I applaud their vision, cautiously. Most disturbing to me is that the dogs were originally seemingly intended to be rendered in a sketchy way, with the bottoms of their torsos trailing off to nothing. But the artist chose to render the bottom portions of them in the same shade of dark green as the shadow, making the final effect that of two severed dog heads floating in mid-air.
Two penguins dressed in tuxedos, facing what seems to be an extremely strong wind in a snowstorm. But why do penguins need tuxedos when they're born wearing natural ones? And does the transparency of their feet through the line indicating ground mean they're ghosts? And while using red nail polish for their boutonnieres was rather inspired, why was it also used to color the wind? Could it be that the red denotes not flowers, but blood?
In 1952, Pat presented this to Perce. We know not what Perce's feelings were about the gift, but we do know it ended up in a yard sale. Pat would surely be proud to know that it hangs in a gallery today, even one as disreputable as this. The painting is really actually very good, and I especially appreciate the economy of using the actual color of this peculiar wood scrap for much of the dog's face and his open mouth.
This is an extremely heavy mosaic, done in such a haphazard style that almost suggests the goal was to see how fast it could be completed. It was found left behind in a house by the next people to move in. The identity of the person depicted may forever remain a mystery. For awhile I thought it was Liberace, then I thought it was Beethoven. Or Henry Hotchkiss. My current theory is that it's Rose Marie.
Done by one Phyllis Beck in 1965, this is a nice sketchy homage to the 'Western Art' scene, done with more concern with color than likeness or detail. It certainly beats some old western paperback covers I've seen.
I originally assumed this woman to be a pilot. But after the painting appeared in the Courier-Journal article about this show, we received a phone call from a lady who recognized her as a well-known biker who lived in the Portland area of Louisville in the 1940s. The helmet, it turns out, is a motorcycle helmet, and the Godman AFB bomber jacket is worn simply out of biker fashion. Her name was 'Jacqueline' pronounced with a French lilt, and if anyone else knows anything more about her, we'd love to know.
This intriguing signed and numbered woodcut print, dated 1966, surely deserves a better fate than to languish at a Goodwill store. This one is 174/250 and has an illegible signature (Mel somebody). I wonder how many of the other 249 copies survive today?

Artwork from the collections of: Karen Dean, Sherry Deatrick, Jeffrey Scott Holland, Douglas Maxson, Mitchell Newport, Steve Rigot, Jameson Welch.