brutjournal – outsider art • art brut • the unclassifiable • the avant-avant-garde

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IN THIS INAUGURAL ISSUE, DON'T MISS THESE FEATURES

Editors Letter

What the heck is brutjournal?
by Edward M. Gómez

London

A Rebel Dykes exhibition looks back at an influential history of political activism and groundbreaking art-making in the United Kingdom
reported by Cathy Ward

New York

Obituary: Louise Fishman, Artist

Chicago

Obituary: Susann Craig, Art collector, museum patron, community builder

Kentucky

Appreciating Mike Goodlett’s art and life

KEEPING SECRETS OF STRANGE THINGS AMONG US

In Strange Things Among Us, at London’s College of Psychic Studies, stones valued for their supposed healing powers and esoteric texts were on display. Photo by Cathy Ward

In London, brutjournal’s artist-correspondent Cathy Ward took a break from polishing her crystals to go look in at the newly renovated College of Psychic Studies, an institution that grew out of the London Spiritualist Alliance in the late 19th century and is still in operation today. She spoke with Vivienne Roberts, the College’s curator and archivist, about the unusual institution’s colorful history, the enduring mysteries of mediumistic art, and Spiritualism’s unexpected appeal in this era of a worldwide public-health crisis and rapid developments in communications technology.

SHIGEKO KUBOTA: A NEW BOOK RECALLS THE VIDEO-ART PIONEER'S CAREER

Shigeko Kubota’s mixed-media video sculpture “Korean Grave” (1993), now on view in Japan at the National Museum of Art, Osaka.

The Japanese-born artist Shigeko Kubota (1937-2015) is best known as the wife of Nam June Paik (1932-2006), the Korean-born artist who is regarded as the founder of video art. Both Kubota and Paik were involved with the Fluxus group in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, Kubota, who began her career as a sculptor and became involved with performance and conceptual art, also used video cameras in the late 1960s and contributed to the development of video art. A new book, published in Japanese and English, the catalog of a Kubota exhibition, chronicles her life and career. Coming: Our article about this informative new volume.

Stay tuned. Coming in September.

In a small town in rural, northeastern Pennsylvania, a 15-year-old girl’s boldly colored drawings win a prime, competitive spot in a billboard-size mural known as “The Great Wall of Honesdale.” This teen carries a big quiver of Sharpies — and knows how to use them.

See our video clip here, too.

IN WESTERN NEW ZEALAND, PSYCHEDELIA RIDES THE WAVES

by Stuart Shepherd

Acid Mince’s members are inspired by underground comics, Art Nouveau, the skateboarding subculture, and more. Photo by Stuart Shepherd.

From New Zealand, Stuart Shepherd reports on the activities of Acid Mince, a group of young surfers who are self-taught painters, too. They have decorated their surfboards, a café that is one of their regular hangouts, and a range of merchandise that they are selling online — hoodies, T-shirts, and more — with their original designs. Spooky and goofy at the same time, their imagery includes ghoulish faces with multiple eyes, bizarre creatures with serpentine limbs, and trippy, hand-drawn typography. Shepherd, an artist who has closely examined outsider art in New Zealand, celebrates Acid Mince’s delightful irreverence.

ERIC WRIGHT PAINTS THE SPIRIT OF TIME AND PLACE

by Edward M. Gómez

At the Horse Hospital, an alternative-space arts center in London: The artist Eric Wright’s small-format paintings packed with a sense of epic narrative evoke the aura — and mystery — of the “Ohio Lands.”

HELGA ROTTERDAM GOUDA: AS I SEE IT

by Helga Rotterdam Gouda

brutjournal’s resident aesthete, Helga Rotterdam Gouda, is nothing if not wisely critical, weighing in on the trends, debates, and curiosities in the fields we cover; nothing is too far-out, taxing, or distracting for Helga, who writes:

TRY MY GUMBO: BIDDING ADIEU TO PERNICIOUS MUMBO JUMBO

My dear ones, as the second summer of the seemingly endless coronavirus and COVID-19 era begins to wane, it’s time to call it quits when it comes to putting up with all the mind-numbing, soul-crushing political code words, deceitful corporate double-talk, obfuscating academic jargon, lazy cyberscribble (R U gettin’ this?), and meaningless mumbo jumbo that constantly assault us. They are toxins — all.

Stay tuned. Helga’s complete column coming soon in September.

“YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND”: A STRANGE, UNEXPECTED RECORD, STILL RADICAL AFTER HALF A CENTURY

by Edward M. Gómez
Half a century has passed since the Japanese-born, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono’s strange — and oddly compelling — solo debut record album, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, was released on the Beatles' Apples Records label in late 1970. It was the dawn of the decade of chart-topping, solo-act singer-songwriters and also of rock “supergroups.”

When Ono’s vinyl LP first appeared, opening on side one with an urgent, hair-raising scream — the artist shrieking the word “why” over a pounding back beat, with John Lennon grinding his electric guitar, Ringo Starr smack-stabbing his drum kit, and Klaus Voormann charging ahead on the bass — critics, rock-music lovers, and, above all, Beatles fans did not know what to make of the artist’s bizarre performance or the unfathomable sound pouring out of their speakers. Some kind of avant-avant-garde rock had arrived. Read brutjournal editor in chief Edward M. Gómez’s forthcoming, in-depth examination of Ono’s peculiar — and unexpectedly influential — experimental masterpiece.

Stay tuned. Coming later in September.

The front cover photo of the 1970 album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band shows Ono lying in the lap of her husband, John Lennon, in the shade of an oak tree. The front cover of Lennon’s companion album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, features a similar photo showing Lennon lying in Ono’s lap beneath the same tree. This photo by Dan Richter ©Yoko Ono Lennon

EXCLUSIVE, FROM THE NEW BOOK: UFO ARTIST IONEL TALPAZAN

Ionel Talpazan (1955-2015), a Romanian immigrant to the U.S.A., led a life of poverty and struggle but soared to the stratosphere and beyond in his vivid imagination, conjuring up otherworldly UFOs and theories about their origins. Now, brutjournal publishes an exclusive excerpt from a forthcoming, new book about Talpazan by Daniel Wojcik, an expert in folklore and mythology who knew the New York-based, visionary artist and has long focused on his unusual art.

HERE, THE FILM “VALTON TYLER: FLESH IS FICTION” FINDS A HOME

The self-taught artist Valton Tyler (1944-2017) lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, and its environs. He created a remarkable body of work — oil paintings on canvas, ink drawings on paper, and complex etchings — that remains very hard to classify according to existing style and genre labels. In 2017, brutjournal’s founder, Edward M. Gómez, and the cinematographer Chris Shields made the first-ever film about Tyler’s life and art, which the artist saw before he died. Now, this 42-minute-long film will reside permanently here, on the magazine’s website. It may be viewed in its entirety, free of charge. Watch it and get to know the bright, bizarre world of a techno-baroque visionary.