An on-line news service devoted to museums and exhibitions in New York City and vicinity. John Hammond, Editor Emeritus • Jonathan Slaff, Publisher • copyright © 2007
Sanford Smith's OUTSIDER ART
At the Puck Building
By Glenn Loney
The Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street
212-274-8900This always-exciting show took place on a January weekend when your scribe was just back from making over 5,000 photographic-images of the Monuments of Ancient Egypt for INFOTOGRAPHY™, so there was no time to post a detailed report. [And, as all these Museum Notes reports are made pro bono--no author's-remuneration is possible--your scribe does what he can, when he can.]
Here are some of the works on view that caught my eye: Yes, Henry Darger's apparently voluminous works still yield up some Collector's Items. But how about Chris Hopkiss's bizarre metropolitan sketches? Or the Artists of Gügging from the Art/Brut Center outside Vienna?
The Bottle-cap Constructions of Mr. Imagination are arresting. And they do help Clean Up the Environment. The Devil Hat sign from Jimmy Hedges' Rising Fawn Folk Art Gallery is a charming oddity.
In a more cartoonish-vein, the drawings of Ken Grimes--Elusive Messages--are intriguing. But almost every gallery/booth had at least one unusual Outsider Artwork. This has become Big Business, and the Prices Are Rising.
Aren't you sorry you threw out that old pottery-mug with George Ohr's name scratched on the bottom? That crocheted-mat you found in the attic might have been made by Grandma Moses, you know… She was into needle-work when she wasn't painting!
