Dilmus Hall Yard Art Sculpture "The Drunkard"

Remnants of "The Devil and the Drunkard" in the yard of Georgia artist Dilmus Hall early 1990s. Original photo by Jim Linderman.

African-American Yard Show Outsider Art Folk Art Environment Assemblage Art Alabama c. 1993

Original photographs of a previously undocumented African-American Yard Show taken in the early 1990's by Mary Klein and Jim Linderman. The gentleman who built the environment, which was nearly as tall as his garage, is today unknown. Somewhere in Alabama, lost in the past. Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog.

SuperBabe The Most Powerful Black Beauty in the World B.E. Riddick c. 1970 Outsider Art Colllection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Alas, an African-American Superhero before her time. Not likely ever featured in her own comic book. The artist B.F Riddick is largely unknown, but produced numerous erotic and bizarre drawings in the 1970s. SuperBabe The Most Powerful Black Beauty in the World by B. F. Riddick collection Jim Linderman

Lonnie Holley Birmingham Alabama Outsider Art Environment Unpublished Photos c.1992

Photographs of Lonnie Holley and his workshop at what has come to be known as the Birmingham Alabama Airport environment.  They date to 1992 or so.  I believe at the time this was both "studio" and home for the artist.

You'll find dozens of his sculptures (made from scrapped foundry sandstone) and hundreds of painted and shaped works of wire, fabric and detritus. It might look ragged, but every thing was purposeful and in place. Something out of a dream. While chatting and touring with the artist, I realized everything was connected through small caves from which children began to emerge.  Beautiful, handsome young children who had been living (or hiding) in their places for safety.  Shy at first, they romped like any kids as they became comfortable with my visit.  

Holley had purchased the land intending to establish it as a refuge for artistic expression.  He was certainly not one short of artistic ideas. Apparently the airport didn't agree and claimed the land. I hope the artist and his family received what was deserved, but it sounded like a land grab at the time. Mr. Holley was and is a genius. This is something I have learned to know and increasingly appreciate over the last 25 years.

A feature article was published by The Guardian which tells his personal story in depth.

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS by Jim Linderman Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

African-American folk art environment Memphis, TN c. 1990

Memphis flash! African-American folk art environment Memphis, TN c. 1992  Photographs by Jim Linderman

African-American Folk Art Sand Sculpture from the New Jersey Shore Pair of Snapshots c. 1915

 

A pair of vernacular snapshots of a sand sculptor at work near the turn of 19th century. The location is likely Ashbury Park or Atlantic City. There were several skilled sand builders working the New Jersey Shore around 1915. I suspect this is either Jas. J. Taylor (who was known for his depictions of Cupid) or Lorenz Harris. Harris was apparently an African-American artist and one of several who displayed their work for tips. This boardwalk tradition was eventually banned from the beaches in 1944. Postcards of the era (both real photo postcards and more widely sold printed versions) were common. This pair are among the few actual snapshots which have turned up. More information on the art and artists is found HERE in the magazine of the American Folk Art Museum. Note monkey gazing at his reflection in a mirror!

African-American Folk Art Sand Sculpture from the New Jersey Shore Pair of Snapshots c. 1915
Collection Jim Linderman courtesy Invisible Commute.

Lonnie Holley's Consistent Artistic Vision Review of Just Before Music

Those familiar with 20th Century self-taught artists, in particular African-American creators will be interested in the new CD of songs by Lonnie Holley on the Dust to Digital label.  Co-produced by Stephen Lance Ledbetter and Matt Arnett.  Lance of course co-produced the Grammy-nominated release Take Me to the Water with me several years ago, and Matt is of course from the Souls Grown Deep organization which published the mammoth (and essential) Souls Grown Deep volumes on Southern Black art which grew from the collecting and scholarship of Bill Arnett.

I first met Lonnie Holley 20 years ago, when he was living on (and in) a remarkable sculptural environment he created in Birmingham, Alabama…a massive jumble of rusted objects repurposed into sculpture, visions, lessons and mojo near the Airport.  While we spoke  (or rather, while Lonnie spun a continuous rap and I listened) he created a  hand-sized carving out of foundry sand with a nail file while a handful of his many children played in the nooks and crannies of his yard.  I left impressed but suspicious.  To this day I have considered Mr. Holly half-spiritual griot  and half carnival barker.  Both, in my book, are noble and valid.  Either way he is a considerable communicator.

I once made a list of all the known and prominent self-taught, or "outsider" artists who also sang or played instruments.  (A year ago, when Lance sent me a dub of one song here, I immediately asked in surprise "who is playing the piano" without thinking much.  Of course it was Lonnie.)  But Sister Gertrude Morgan, Henry Speller, Son Thomas,  S. L. Jones, Charles and Noah Kinney, Anderson Johnson, Howard Finster and Jimmy Sudduth all played some music.  It goes hand in hand…the creative impulse is cultural after all, and visual arts often come from the same place as musical.  They are one and the same in many ways.

Lonnie comes up with a handful of songs in perfect synch with his sculptural creations.  A contemporary praise singer of sorts.  There is a consistency in his vision which travels to his fingers, back to his eyes and now through his voice.  One voice.  He may claim he is the voice of his ancestors, or of the earth, but Lonnie is really his own voice built upon deep roots.  Musically, the disc is more than anything a pleasing groove,  Not quite the deep Alabama blues drone of Junior Kimbrough which came out of the Fat Possum hills, but you WILL hear descending phrases which sound like the bluesman,only here soft and almost jazz-like.  The lyrics are moods with repeated phrases as much as poems,  and all are what one could be called vintage Lonnie.  Consistent with his vision.

There is lovely packaging, of course.  Both Souls Grown Deep and Dust to Digital do that like no one else.  Holley writes the intro, and there is a ten page insert with splendid examples of his art as well as lyrics.  If you collect Dust to Digital releases, and you should, it is recommended.  If you are interested in the relationship between the visual and aural traditions of African-American culture, likewise. 

Dust to Digital continues to be the most interesting, entertaining and DEEP labels of recorded sound in business.  A striking video of Mr. Holley working follows:

African-American Yard Art "Does Nothing" Press Photo Collection Jim Linderman

African-American Yard Art "Does Nothing" while being great.


Irving Keene construction, December 1956 Original photograph by Robert H. Burgess Press Photo Collection of Jim Linderman

Funky Furniture Eccentric Handmade Vanity with Flash Outsider Art on Wood African-American

A very small (25" tall) handmade vanity "thing" from Muskegon, Michigan circa 1930 or so. While the piece is made by hand with an eccentric construction, the paint flash strikes the eye first. It strikes the eye hard!

In my travels and years of collecting, anytime I see a piece of furniture with sawcut edges, unusual construction and more than anything such decoration, especially with gold, I think the piece could likely be African-American. Scholars will point out such characteristics and make a good case, but we will never really know.

Muskegon and Muskegon Heights in particular have a slightly higher percentage of African-American residents than some Western Michigan cities, and I have seen a good many pieces of furniture like this from barbershops which came from Black neighborhoods over the years.

On the other hand, I have seen some damn crazy rustic country furniture from Peckerwood Gulch with some wild paint, and sometimes the tallest bottle trees grow in Caucasian gardens.Handmade, paint-decorated Diminutive Towel rack with drawer thing, circa 1930-1940 collection Jim Linderman

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Sand Sculptures of Atlantic City Seaside Sand Sculpture without Snookie or the Situation

Working with sand! Sand Sculpture where I live is done with your toes and with every step, but the REAL art flourished in Atlantic City in the late 19th century. Talented artists began creating temporary statues and, as shown here, relief sculptures for passing boardwalk visitors.

They always had a purpose other than mere beauty. Some were commissioned by boardwalk businesses as advertising, others were sponsored by local fraternal organizations. There were independent artists as well, they worked for tips...but like all boardwalk "artists" many were con men. I don't know how you can pick the pocket of a fellow bending over to look at your sand sculpture when he is wearing bathing trunks, but it happened, and the practice of drawing crowds to sand art was outlawed in 1944.

Some artists worked close enough to the boardwalk to catch coins tossed by the strolling masses, early versions of "The Situation" and drunken shore slut "Snookie" (both who actually hang a few miles north at Seaside Heights, once one of my favorite places to escape from New York City for a weekend.) The only sculptures up there are The Situation's sculpted abdominal muscles.

Some would work on commission and create a sculpture of a paying customer. Many of the artists were African-American. Although not too well known, the Clarion magazine, (published by the American Folk Art Museum) describes Black artists working on the beach in a 1992 article, and as I recall, documenting an instance of an African-American artist being "lightened up" for a postcard.

For the silica masterpieces shown here, sand was densely packed into a box surrounded by 2 x 4 wood section and shaped with sticks and trowels. The sand surrounding the work was then painted black. I have found no less than two dozen postcards depicting the artists and their work, most dating to around 1910 (including one dated 1911 showing this very group of sculptures) but this is the only actual photograph I have seen. It dates to 1910 or so as well, I have seen the same group of works shown in a magazine around that time. As you can see, the artist added a few more works before the picture was taken for the postcard. Maybe they lugged them under the boardwalk when it rained.
Original Vernacular photograph of Atlantic City Sand Sculptures, circa 1910 collection Jim Linderman

The Bizarre Erotic Outsider Art of B. E. RIDDICK

Examples of the outsider art by African-American Outsider Artist B. E. Riddick, who drew on flattened shopping bags and other paper circa 1970

Eugene Bilbrew A Return Visit to the Studio on West 42nd Street

Of all the posts on this blog, the ones generating the most hits are the series I did on vintage sleaze illustrators of the 1960's, in particular the profile and pictures of work by Eugene Bilbrew. So much for my attempts to uplift the masses. I aim to please, ALL ARE NOW COLLECTED ON THE SITE VINTAGE SLEAZE

Bilbrew, an African-American School of Visual Arts student (!) fell into bad company and even worse habits. As he slipped into heroin addiction, his work became even more bizarre. He moved to the rear of a porno bookshop on the deuce. The mob-run publisher he worked for was busted out of business, so he sold his drawings to no less sleazy publishers such as Wizard, Satan and Chevron. Most of these are from Satan. A pall-bearer hits on the widow. An unlikely prison visitor tempts caged psychopaths. A rogue cop harasses an amorous couple out on the beach too late. A shop-class goggles wearing professor aims his student's motorcycle "headlights" into the wind. And of course, the extra-flamboyant dancer against a lime green wall "trips" and falls into the lap of his modern art loving suitor. Never mind that the text had absolutely nothing to do with the cover illustration, this is kitsch of the highest order. These all date to the late 1960's. Several have "saw-cut" slashes, which means they were returned to the distributor unsold. I can not imagine why.

To his credit, I suppose...Bilbrew was one of the few artists doing multi-racial covers at the time. (and the hair-impaired, for that matter) I don't think it helped sales.

Group of 1960's paperback cover illustrations by Eugene Bilbrew. Formerly collection Jim Linderman

Dave the Slave / My Favorite African-American Poet is a Potter from South Carolina named Dave

It's been a long time since I owned a piece of pottery made by Dave the Slave, but I can show you a picture of it. Doesn't look like much, I know, but you should see it in the collection it lives in now. A brown jug with the initials "LM" inscribed in the clay, salt-glazed. It holds a few gallons of water, but I never put any in it. I was made around 1840 in South Carolina when Dave was owned by Lewis Miles, he being the "LM" of course. Dave did the pot with his huge hands and he signed it with his owner's initials. I paid more for that piece of pottery than Mr. Miles paid for Dave.

The Jug was likely made to store or carry foodstuffs. Pickles maybe, or chunks of meat. They were made thick and baked to be strong enough to last a trip on your wagon as you skirted holes in the road. That this jug has lasted some 150 years is testimony to Dave's skills.

So the Poet in the post title? See, another thing about this jug is that it's maker, Dave the Slave, could both read and write at a time in South Carolina history when Black Men were forbidden to be taught either of those skills. He not only wrote his owner's initials on his jugs, on quite a few he wrote entire poems of his own composition, three of my favorites follow:


Dave belongs to Mr. Miles
Wher the oven bakes & the pot biles


I wonder where is all my relations
Friendship to all – and every nation


A pretty little girl on a verge
volca[n]ic mountain, how they burge


I hadn't thought of Dave or his work for a while. Then a rude, insolent White man from South Carolina decided to yell at a Black man who was addressing him and others from the podium before all three branches of our government. in fact, he was addressing ALL of us, not just those in attendance, and I was watching. I do not know how many times Dave was yelled at in his time...but I have some idea of how much it probably hurt.

My jug now lives in a private collection of African-American Art in the same room as works by Romare Bearden, James Vanderzee, Richmond Barthe, Elizabeth Cartlett and Augusta Savage. I'm glad it's there, it belongs. I was honored to own it for a while. More information on Dave, including all his poems on pots (though now called "vessels") is available if you look.

Frank Maresca Gallerist, Herman Bridgers Preacher, Artist, Grave Digger

(click image to enlarge)

The current issue of Antiques & Fine Art profiles Frank Maresca. It also shows his apartment in Manhattan, which is always a treat not only because I love Frank's collection and his skill of design, but because there is often shown an object or two which speaks particularly loud to me, the primitive and powerful work of Herman (Bridgets) Bridgers. More than anyone Frank has shown how to present American folk art sculpture as the art it IS. Well-lite, on pedestals, with room to be seen, appreciated and to breathe. Frank has been an influential gallerist. writer, curator and designer for nearly 30 years, and through his books and exhibits he has literally changed how a country looks it its own art. No small feat. Mr. Maresca has always championed the work of a modest artist who lived in Enfield, North Carolina I wrote about in 1996. Seeing some of his work again in the magazine reminded me it should be archived online, so here it is.

Gene Bilbrew African-American Artist of Vintage Sleaze (follow-up)

For those of you who enjoyed my articles on the illustrators for Eddie Miskin's 1960's sleazy paperback book line, in particular the strikingly demented work of Gene Bilbrew...someone is selling two covers I've never seen before on Ebay. It gives me an opportunity to crib the images and use up a days post. I pass...if you bid, good luck! If you haven't seen the earlier posts, click on label Vintage Sleaze below.