MARCH 2022 – brutjournal

THIS IS THE PLACE FOR DISCOVERIES AND DISCUSSIONS OF THE MOST INVENTIVE ART FORMS – ALL KINDS OF ART THAT IS FAR-OUT, FANTASTIC, FREE-SPIRITED, FUN, FUNKY, PHENOMENAL AND GOOD FOR THE SOUL. (MAMA CALLED IT SUI GENERIS)
SUBSCRIBE, BABY. RIGHT NOW!

IN A NEW SERIES OF INTERVIEWS AND ESSAYS, "THE LANGUAGE OF ABSTRACTION," EDWARD M. GÓMEZ SPEAKS WITH PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND OTHER ARTISTS ABOUT THE ENDURING APPEAL, EXPRESSIVE POWER, AND RADICAL NATURE OF ABSTRACT ART. FIRST UP: JOHN CRAWFORD, WHO WORKS BIG, BIG, BIG WITH IRON AND STEEL. SEE THE BIG PAGE.

IN THIS ISSUE, DON'T MISS THESE FEATURES

Editor’s letter

What the heck is brutjournal?
by Edward M. Gómez

New book

Jed Perl's Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts: Our review, with exclusive interview material

Phoenix, Arizona

Rarely seen, pioneering Japanese modern photography
by Sarah Fensom

New York

Former Gutai artist Takesada Matsutani, still innovating

2022 OUTSIDER ART FAIR, NEW YORK: LIVE COVERAGE

It’s here — the 2022 Outsider Art Fair, taking place in New York from March 3 through March 6. Check in here for brutjournal’s daily coverage during the big event’s four-day run. We’ll be looking for what’s new, bold, and unusual. Join us! Free access to these articles.

SPECIAL SECTION: brutjournal GOES TO JAPAN

Ancient and ultra-modern, hip and serene, Japan is a place of dramatic contrasts and impressive creativity. This month: a batch of features about the Japan-related topics on our radar screen, with original reports from old-new Nippon. See our intro, here. Free access to this article.

AKIRA SHIMIZU: MODERN MASTER OF COLLAGE

Born in 1938 in Toyama, a coastal city in west-central Japan, Akira Shimizu is an important Japanese modern artist who never followed any art movement. His individualism comes across in his strange and elegant collages. A visit with the artist at his home near Tokyo.

BY THE TIME WE GET TO PHOENIX, THEY’LL BE SHOWING MODERN JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY

The exhibition Farewell Photography: The Hitachi Collection of Postwar Japanese Photographs, 1961-1989, at the Phoenix Art Museum, showcases era-defining images from the modernist, postwar period in Japan. Sarah Fensom, brutjournal's U.S.A. West Coast bureau chief, reports.

TODAY'S ART DISCOVERY

As Cathy Ward reported in a feature article in brutjournal’s December 2021 issue, in the far north of England, the artist-designer Tod Hanson has been transforming the interiors of Waxwing, his Georgian-era home, into dazzling, painted spaces. Now we learn that the unusual house is for sale. Asking price: 400,000 British pounds. There are still several rooms to go. Will the magical transformation continue? Photo by Cathy Ward. See our earlier article here. Listing agent's description of the property here.

TOKYO EXHIBITION: GETTING TO KNOW "MOM’S ART"

Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery is an art space whose exhibitions highlight the work of self-taught, art brut, and outsider artists. Its current exhibition features unusual craft works made by Japanese senior citizens. See our eye-popping photos of “Mom’s art.” Kanpai!

TAKE US TO BOTCHY-BOTCHY’S PAINTED CHAMBER

“Botchy-Botchy” is the nom d'artiste of a Tokyo-based, French-born painter who has lived many years in Japan. A former corporate type, he now devotes his time to art, including an unusual mural — a hot-pink baccahanal — which we saw in situ. Free access to this article.

VIEW THE FILM: “VALTON TYLER: FLESH IS FICTION”

The self-taught artist Valton Tyler (1944-2017) lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, and its environs. He created remarkable works — oil paintings, ink drawings on paper, complex etchings — that remain hard to classify according to existing style or genre labels. In 2017, Edward M. Gómez (brutjournal’s founder) and cinematographer Chris Shields made the first-ever film about Tyler’s life and art, which the artist saw before he died. 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. Free access to this article and the film.