Film Screening
James Castle: Portrait of the Artist
Followed by a conversation with filmmaker Jeffrey Wolf
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Starts at 2:00 p.m.
2008, 53 minutes
Van Pelt Auditorium, ground floor
Free tickets required after Museum admission -- pay as you wish, all day Sunday
Ann Percy, curator of James Castle: A Retrospective, makes an appearance in this documentary that explores the artist’s life and creative process. Castle was born deaf in 1899 in central Idaho. He refused to learn to read, write, finger-spell, or sign, communicating instead through the eloquence of his art. Since his death in 1977, Castle has gained world recognition as a self-taught artist.
"There’s an interesting point in this retrospective when the simple urge to reproduce what the eye sees gives way to a deeper urge to express what the spirit feels. . . The everyday becomes mysterious, and reportage gives way to myth making. Art is born. . . This is what the sometimes-overused phrase “the triumph of the human spirit” is all about."
--Andrew Mangravite, Broad Street Review, 10/19/2008