Caroline Goe Missing NYC Street Artist and Outsider Art collection Jim Linderman

There are plenty of mysteries and coincidences in the world of Outsider Art. I can add these four pieces to the mystery of lost New York City street artist Carolyn Goe. I've owned the group above TWICE in the last thirty years! I sold them in a batch of things before I moved out of Manhattan in 2008 and hadn't thought of her since. When I saw them turn up recently on an online auction site (without the artist's name) I added them right back into my collection. How they got to Maine I have no idea. I also had absolutely no knowledge of the Caroline Goe at White Columns in 2019 until browsing it up a week ago. I wish I could contribute more to fill in the missing blanks. Cori Hutchinson wrote a lovely, particularly thoughtful review of the White Columns Goe Show HERE in White Hot Magazine. It is a very good read. One thing I do know about Ms. Goe is that somewhere along the line I was told the artist's name was Carolyn GOES. As in "she comes and goes…?" Although I personally knew both Barry Cohen, who collected and promoted her work, and the folks at the Artisans antique shop who had work of for sale at one time, I don't think my set came either sources. Could be wrong, as it's a world away to me now. In the 25 years I lived in Manhattan, I did purchase from (and personally befriend) lots of street artists (including the now better known "outsiders" Bertha Halozan, and Ionel Talapazan. I "discovered" Haitian artist Max Romain's work in a public library show and first tracked him down through his librarian friend. There were many more. More than these three became friends of mine as well, which is why I am sure my Goe pieces didn't originally come directly from her. If they had, I would know plenty more about her than folks seem to know now. I can not remember ever seeing Carolyn Goe. I can't claim these are among her best. Lynne Tillman has the best. The show was drawn from her collection. One indication of her possible disappearance could be that one of my pieces features a nurse, which could now foretell an uncertain future for the artist. Most street artists have a rough life. Even Art Forum got aboard and featured the show HERE illustrating a woman in a kimono from the exhibition. Caroline Goe Four untitled mixed media works on canvas scrap circa 1970 - 1980 Collection Jim Linderman

Elmer Anderson Mike Kelley Inappropriate Appropriation, The Thing , Genuine Genius Scott Warmuth and Ghostly Afterimage

There is nothing better than a slow-burning low-art mystery, and Elmer Anderson just continues to prove it. My third post on Elmer in as many years, this one prompted by a remarkable find by the brilliant Scott Warmuth. An actual ad (!) taken out by Elmer's distributor, in of all places Billboard Magazine! Maybe they thought musicians were the perfect consumers for his wacky and incomprehensible drawings. You know...the reefer.

NOW having done three posts on the artist Elmer, I should be recognized as the world's foremost Elmer Anderson scholar, though I know absolutely NOTHING about him. As such, I'll take any opportunity to exhibit Elmer. Or as I pointed out HERE, "Genuine" Elmer. Certainly one of the most infamous, if unknown, artists of Waterloo, Iowa.

I have also since learned noted contemporary artist Mike Kelley used an Elmer Anderson image, "The Thing" shown above, as the source for his painting "Ghostly Afterimage" in 1998. Now that may be appropriation, but it certainly is not appropriate. "The Thing" can stand on it's own, it being a dramatic and profound anti-alcohol piece with a sufferer choking a whiskey snake.

Here is what falutin' art magazine Frieze had to say about Kelley's piece based on "The Thing".

"Ghostly Afterimage, for example, a brutish self portrait in oils by the fictional ‘Elmer’, accompanied by a psycho-babble commentary claiming that ‘Elmer’s shaky paint is typical of those who suffer from the type of violent delirium characterised by the sweats, trembling, anxiety and frightening hallucinations’"

Brutish? FICTIONAL? Humpf. May I suggest another word starting with BR? Brilliant!



Sure enough as seen here, lower right, Kelley's painting is a perfect reversed image of Elmer's brilliant work, but appears to be painted on (the then) trendy plywood backing contemporary artists were using in the late 90s. The IRONY. Well, Elmer didn't work in irony, and I doubt he ever knew his image was shown as "kunst" in Germany. If you dig around enough, you will find the brochure, which is a German art catalog, but you'll have to use Google translate to see if the "critic" liked it!
Jim Linderman is a collector of Elmer Anderson Postcards, and author of THE HORRIBLE HANDMADE POSTCARDS OF ANONYMOUS printed by Blurb. Anonymous would have liked Elmer.



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The Art of Old Time Religion

To say the least, the use of Christian religious iconography in a sincere manner has not been the stuff of contemporary artists or art collectors. On the contrary, and in the last few decades in particular, artists have taken delight in lampooning the depiction of all things bible. You can probably name a few of them without thinking, as opportunistic politicians frequently use their work to raise funds. Whether their motivations were born of genuine artistic skill and talent, or merely a way to appear clever and attract attention is up to the viewer and critic. For my collection plate donation, the most appealing and interesting "contemporary religious art" came from studio Warhol. Sincere or not, his last supper paintings which I saw beautifully installed in NYC were striking, modern and beautiful. All the more "controversial" pieces from the era appeared lame, obvious and contrived by comparison. They do even more so today.

As I discuss in the introduction to Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Photography and Music 1890-1950 (Dust-to-Digital) there is a notion that sincere religious artists, regardless of medium, often work harder when they are depicting renditions of their faith. The gospel singer strains to reach a higher note, the mural painter uses precision when attempting to achieve God's perfection and the glazier never leaves loose leaded panes in a piece behind the pulpit. Whether these practitioners of religious craft use iconography to preach or to make a living is moot... it could be both.

The most prolific "religious" artist of this century is certainly Howard Finster, the late folk artist from Georgia, who created nearly 50,000 individually numbered works before having the brush (and Sharpie) pried from his cold fingers. It has been a common understanding that despite his seemingly sincere attempts to convert heathens though his work, a collector of his eccentric paintings who has actually been saved has not yet come forth to testify. Rather, his work has been appreciated for the most part by smug non-believers who found his work quaint rather than convincing.

I started collecting religious ephemera as an outgrowth of folk art and vernacular photography. My own beliefs don't exist beyond a rudimentary trust in the scientific method, but I do believe OTHERS believe, and that makes the material fascinating. Elaborate obsessive doodles of outsider art, shaking and sweating evangelists and tax-dodging street corner churches have always seemed a sort of performance art to me. Who determines what is saved, sacred or sane? It's all fine with me even if not fine art...and when it isn't any good, it is at the least still interesting because it was a good try. I may lean solidly towards the smug side of art appreciation, but there is always a story with each work I find. Faith or fraud, the fevered brow produces some pretty interesting product.

Running the gamut from silly to sacred, eccentric to evangelical (I could go on) there is a wealth of spiritual flotsam sitting in the shoe boxes of history, and I will present it one day at a time on old time religion. Objective reporting seems to be a disappearing along with newspapers, but I aim to be journalistic. If a preacher sullied the farmer's daughter and left town with a sack of money, so be it. Just like Jesus said, no one is perfect, and it seems particularly true in this milieu. One thing we CAN give thanks for is federal prosecution of mail fraud. Whether the material presented is pathetic or profound, it exists in great big abundance. One doesn't look far for a message of faith in this country. From rear bumper fish to door-knocking Jehovah's, we are looking at one big industry here...and big industry makes lots of things that take up space. I certainly do not need to prosthelytize. All manner of bible salesman, radio preachers and lobbyists have beat me to it. But I can dig up some cool things and probably dig up a few things folks would rather have buried too. Let's see!

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