Elizabeth Wise

Євген Довгий.

Езра Павнд руками Олега Лишеги

Cyprien Tokoudagba (1939-2012)

At an early age, self-taught artist from Benin, Cyprien Tokoudagba was sent to a Voudou temple to learn the skills of the priesthood. While he would eventually follow a different path in life (in addition to his work as an artist, he also worked as an art restorer at the Abomey Museum in Benin), the religious symbols and traditions of Voudou can be seen throughout his work. Tokoudagba has turned his art in service to the gods and kings of his native Abomey into a broader mission of preserving cultural heritage for younger generations. He was an initiate of vodun Tôhôssou, god of the water. He began his artwork by adorning the walls of vodun temples, and later restored the “bas-reliefs” of the royal palaces of Abomey. While he originally worked on decorating Voudou temples with deities, his inclusion in the 1989 Paris exhibition "Magiciens de la Terre" eventually led him to painting on canvas. In his own words, he states: “For me art is something that emerges from my inner self. Art is the representation of thoughts and knowledge. It is an elevated sphere, a castle for philosophers. An artist value is much too great to be explained. Art is inside my head.”

Dwight Mackintosh (1906-1999)

Following a brain injury after birth, Dwight Mackintosh was considered as “mentally retarded”. He was first committed at the age of sixteen and spent his almost whole life - next 56 years - in psychiatric centers. He was seventy-two years old when his doctors decided that a life outside of institution could have a beneficial effect on him. At the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland Dwight Mackintosh found a welcoming place, encouraging the emergence of an important artistic production. Mackintosh’s images centered on the figure - initially he drew only boys. Over the years he gradually introduced new elements, including see-through (x-ray) vehicles, animals, and even a few women. Early model cars and high-buttoned boots of a previous era were images remembered from childhood. Unintelligible writing was often an element of Mackintosh’s drawings, but it was separate from the primary image like so many layers of unraveled yarn floating overhead. His sequences of connected letters moved from left to right as if they were continuous explanatory text, or perhaps one vast sentence or signature. No one, not even Dwight Mackintosh, could tell us what was written. A series of strokes in his later years changed the dynamic of Mackintosh’s images, and the sure, clear, steady line for which he had been known became a dense, echoing ripple. He died in 1999, leaving behind thousands of drawings and an extraordinary legacy. Now one of the most respected “outsider” artists, his work is in the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in many other public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe.

Gaston Savoy (1923-2004)

A native of Attalens, in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland), Gaston Savoy grew up and lived on the family farm. When, by the age of nine, he was still not speaking, he was admitted to the Le Guintzet institution for the deaf and hard of hearing. There he followed classes adapted to his capacities and discovered a taste for drawing. As it turned out, Gaston Savoy was not deaf but hard of hearing, in conjunction with a slight mental handicap. At sixteen, he returned to the family farmstead where, as a teenager, he spent his time chopping wood for the household and carrying out sundry minor household chores. His family always saw him drawing on all kinds of supports: on cardboard, the backs of envelope, newspaper margins, pieces of wood... They did not keep most of his first drawings. Upon being admitted to the Charitable Hospice St. Joseph in Châtel St-Denis in 1988, at the age of sixty-five, he continued creating, going on to produce some two hundred pieces. For the most part, Gaston Savoy drew in series that repeat various animal motifs, such as cows or sheep: these are reinterpretations of the "poya" (cattle drive) motif. He also depicted ritual festivities like the "Bénichon" (a traditional canton of Fribourg festival in thanks for a bountiful harvest) or the Saint-Nicolas (the City of Fribourg's patron saint, honored the first Sunday of December).

Pierre Vuitton (1880-1962)

After being severely wounded, both physically and psychologically, in WW1, Vuitton abandoned his previous life as the child of wealthy merchants. After several stays in sanitariums and mental hospitals, he moved to Paris in 1920. An enjoyer of morphine and alcohol, he lived as a casual laborer in poverty despite the rare sale of his pictures. His first works were probably during the war years, later he developed "time-excesses" in which he reportedly spent several days painting without eating or sleeping. He made the acquaintance of several artists in the Parisian bohemian scene, including Dubuffet, Cocteau, Picasso, de Chirico, and Picabia. Increasingly, however, his deteriorating mental condition spoiled any binding relationship, so he spent most of his later life in mental hospitals or in nursing homes.