James Castle Catalogue

JAMES CASTLE AS K A N D L E A R N

2 JULY — 16 AUGUST 2015

JAMES CASTLE AS K A N D L E A R N

62 SOUTH GLENWOOD STREET JACKSON HOLE WY 83001 TEL 307 733 0555 TAYLOEPIGGOTTGALLERY.COM

INTRODUCTION

The simple beauty and mystery of ordinary places and things can be found throughout James Castle’s work. “Ask and Learn” presents the viewer with the same expectation the artist demanded of himself — to look at one’s environment with great and consistent intensity. In considering Castle’s practice of foraging for understanding we are drawn to the words by poet Wallace Stevens:

“THE WORLD MUST BE MEASURED BY EYE”

IN COOPERATION WITH THE JAMES CASTLE COLLECTION AND ARCHIVE

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Untitled (ASK AND LEARN), c. 1944 Found paper, wheat paste 2 x 4 3/4 in.

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Untitled (birds/dresser), n.d. two-sided drawing Found paper, soot 5 3/8 x 7 1/2 in.

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Untitled (rooster/bird), n.d. two-sided drawing Found paper, soot 6 x 6 in.

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Untitled (farmscape with flag), n.d.

Found paper, soot 4 x 5 3/4 in.

Untitled (bird/structure), n.d. opposite page; two-sided drawing Found paper, soot 4 1/8 x 5 in.

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Untitled (building), n.d.

Found paper, soot 5 3/4 x 7 1/4 in.

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Untitled (GRAHAM CRACKERS) book, 16 pps., n.d.

Found paper, soot, string 8 x 6 3/4 in.

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Untitled book, 12 pps., n.d.

Found paper, soot, string 1 1/8 x 1 1/2 in.

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Untitled (SHREDDED WHEAT) book, 26 pps., n.d.

Found paper, soot, found text, wheat paste, string 4 x 5 7/8 in.

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Untitled (CALEND book), n.d.

Found paper, soot 5 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.

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Untitled (standing figure), n.d.

Found paper, soot 2 1/2 x 2 in.

Untitled (portrait/circle), n.d. opposite page; two-sided drawing Found paper, soot 4 x 4 1/2 in.

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Untitled (stove/interior), n.d. two-sided drawing Found paper, soot 4 x 8 in.

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Untitled (black form), n.d.

Found paper, soot, color of unknown origin, string 6 1/4 x 8 3/8 in.

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Untitled (TRUE STORY MAGAZINE) book, 36 pps., n.d.

Found paper, soot, string 5 7/8 x 4 3/4 in.

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Untitled (NATIONAL) book, 46 pps., n.d.

Found paper, soot, string 5 5/8 x 3 7/8 in.

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Untitled (160 PAGE) book, 4 pps., n.d.

Found book, soot 10 x 8 in.

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Untitled (interior/interior), n.d. two-sided drawing Found paper, soot 6 5/8 x 9 in.

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Untitled (hexagon pattern), n.d.

Found paper, soot, color of unknown origin, string 5 7/8 x 4 3/4 in.

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Untitled (hexagon), n.d.

Found paper, soot 2 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.

Untitled (Greetings), 12 pps., n.d. opposite page Found paper, soot, string 6 x 4 3/4 in.

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Untitled (flamingo), n.d.

Found paper, soot, color of unknown origin, string 28 3/4 x 10 in.

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Untitled (color shapes), n.d.

Found paper, color of unknown origin 3 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.

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Untitled (color shapes), n.d.

Found paper, color of unknown origin 4 3/4 X 6 in.

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Untitled (four color shapes), n.d.

Found paper, color of unknown origin 3 x 7 in.

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Untitled (two figures and house), n.d.

Found paper, color of unknown origin, string 7 x 10 in.

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Untitled (figure in suit), n.d.

Found paper, soot 5 3/4 x 4 in.

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Untitled (James Castle/James Castle), n.d. two-sided drawing Colored pencil 3 3/8 x 6 3/8 in.

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JAMES CASTLE b. 1899 Garden Valley, Idaho d. 1977 Boise, Idaho James Castle was a self-taught artist who created drawings, handmade books and constructions for nearly seventy years. Castle is known for the skill of his draftsmanship, his unique subject matter, and for his use of found and homemade materials. His recurrent and diverse themes tell an intimate story of a life lived in rural Idaho during the 20th century. Castle captures in his imagery the simple beauty and mystery of ordinary places and things. Deaf from birth, he elevates the mundane into the realm of art via the lens of an observation and interpretation crafted in a profound and distinct isolation.

Selected One-Person Exhibitions 2015

2014

2013 2012

2011

2010

2009

2008 2007

2006

James Castle, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan James Castle : Ask and Learn, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY Untitled: the Art of James Castle, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. Constructing James Castle, Urban Arts Space, Columbus, OH James Castle, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France James Castle: An Absence of There, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY James Castle, Show and Store, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain James Castle, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany James Castle: Books, Lawrence Markey Gallery, San Antonio, TX James Castle: A Retrospective, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA James Castle, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland James Castle Drawing: Vision and Touch, Knoedler & Co., New York, NY James Castle: A Retrospective, Art Institute of Chicago, IL James Castle: A Retrospective, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA James Castle, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA James Castle, Lawrence Markey Gallery, San Antonio, TX James Castle/Walker Evans: Word Play, Signs and Symbols, an exhibition in

two parts, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY

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2005 2002

2001 2000

One Man’s Vocabulary, JH Muse Gallery, Jackson, WY James Castle, Structures, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY James Castle, Works on Paper, Galerie Bernd Kluser, Munich, Germany James Castle, James Mayor Gallery, London, UK James Castle, The Common Place, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY James Castle, House Drawings, The Drawing Center, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions 2015 America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 2014 Paronomasia, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY

Zurük in die Zukunft: Zeichnungen von Teipolo bis Warhol [Back to the

Future: Drawings from Tiepolo to Warhol], Kunst Halle Krems, Austria 2013 The Venice Biennale 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy

Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos, Serpentine Gallery, London, U.K.

Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz

Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA 2012 Shock of the News, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 2011 Zettels Traum, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany 2010 10,000 Lives, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea Selected Public Collections Art Institute of Chicago, IL Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, CA Boise Art Museum, ID Columbus Museum of Art, OH High Art Museum, Atlanta, GA Milwaukee Art Museum, WI Minneapolis Museum of the Arts, WI Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. The New York Public Library, NY Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA Portland Art Museum/The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, OR Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

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ON THE ROAD HOME

BY WALLACE STEVENS

It was when I said, “There is no such thing as the truth,” That the grapes seemed fatter.

The fox ran out of his hole.

You … You said, “There are many truths, But they are not parts of a truth.”

Then the tree, at night, began to change, Smoking through green and smoking blue.

We were two figures in a wood.

We said we stood alone.

It was when I said, “Words are not forms of a single word.

In the sum of the parts, there are only the parts.

The world must be measured by eye”; It was when you said, “The idols have seen lots of poverty, Snakes and gold and lice, But not the truth”; It was at that time, that the silence was largest And longest, the night was roundest, The fragrance of the autumn warmest, Closest and strongest.

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Published on the occasion of the exhibition

JA M ES CAST L E ASK AND LEARN 2 july to 16 august 2015 Tayloe Piggott Gallery Post Office Box 1435 62 South Glenwood Street Jackson Hole, Wyoming 83001 Tel 307 733 0555 www.tayloepiggottgallery.com

Our most sincere thank you to Jacque Crist and the James Castle Collection and Archive, for their support of this exhibition and for the opportunity to share James Castle’s art.

Images ©James Castle Collection and Archive LP. All rights reserved.

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62 SOUTH GLENWOOD STREET JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING TEL 307 733 0555 TAYLOEPIGGOTTGALLERY.COM