Touched into Being - James Castle

Art in America, June, 2001 by Stephen Westfall

After an exhibition season in which corporations and commodity culture appear to have finally co-opted much of the museum world, and the most talked-about gallery show was undoubtedly Damien Hirst's industrial extravaganza at Gagosian, the Castle show at Knoedler came as a much-needed relief to those starved for the drama and aura of the handmade. And it is rare that a life of insoluble mysteries should coincide with imagery that is itself concerned with the integration of hallucination and mood into an objective survey of one's environment. The circumstances of Castle's life are thus grist for the mill of romantic legend and so, if anything, may constitute an additional barrier to critical acknowledgment that his work transcends the Outsider label. The impact of the work is cumulative, and the salon-style hanging of the Knoedler show in particular served as a wonderful orientation for the uninitiated, whose ranks until now included most of us. Castle's unsentimental technical persistence, powered by what we must imagine to be joy and a kind of love, unfolds into mood, elegance and a wry visual humor that bespeak a breathtaking intelligence and large heart.

(1.) John Yau, "Invention and Discovery: The Art of James Castle," from the exhibition catalogue Janus Castle: The Common Place, New York, Knoedler & Company, 2000.

(2.) Tom Trusky, "Found and Profound: The Art of James Castle," Folk Art Magazine, winter 1999, pp. 40-44.

(3.) W.H. Auden, introduction to Nineteenth Century British Minor Poets, New York, Delacorte, 1966, pp. 15-16. Quoted in John Ashbery, Other Traditions, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2000.

"James Castle: House Drawings" appeared at the Drawing Room, New York [Mar. 4-May 4, 2000]. "Reputedly Illiterate: The Art Books of James Castle" was seen at the American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York [Mar. 30-May 12, 2000]; and "James Castle: The Common Place" at Knoedler & Company, New York [Nov. 15, 2000-Jan. 13, 2001]. None of the exhibitions traveled. Works by Castle will be on view this November at J Crist Gallery, Boise, Idaho, and the New Orleans Museum of Art plans a full retrospective for 2003.

Author: Stephen Westfall is an artist who also writes about art.