Edited and with foreword by Udo Kittelmann, Claudia Dichter. Text by Lee Kogan.
When the freelance photographer and graphic designer Morton Bartlett (1909–1992) died at the age of 83, his relatives found 15 chests among his possessions. Each chest contained a half-life-size doll and its accessories: 12 girls and three boys, a wardrobe of hand-sewn clothes, black-and-white photographs of each doll as well as countless studies and archival materials. Bartlett began designing these dolls in the mid-1930s, studying anatomy books and histories of costume, and learning to sew and mold with clay to make them as true to life as possible. Each doll entailed a huge amount of labor, taking up to a year to complete; Bartlett created costumes and wigs for each one and then staged them in lifelike scenarios and photographed them, documenting a family he had never had and creating a body of work that would remain unexhibited during his lifetime. The third installment in the Bahnhof Museum’s series on outsider artists, this volume examines Bartlett’s extraordinary lifelong obsession.
Featured image is reproduced from Morton Bartlett: Secret Universe III.
"The Outsider Art Fair, a wonderfully eccentric jewel in the crown of New York art fairs, has a renewed radiance," according to The New York Times' Roberta Smith. "For the first time in its 20-year history, it occupies a building retrofitted for art: the clean, well-lighted spaces of the former Dia Art Foundation. This places it in the western reaches of Chelsea, once again confronting the world of contemporary insider art with irrefutable proof that the most lasting work comes from unstoppable emotional necessity, an especially useful lesson for the moment. Since its inception, the fair has been pivotal in establishing the importance and richness of 20th-, and now 21st-century, folk, outsider and self-taught art and for virtually introducing greats like James Castle, Morton Bartlett, George Widener and others to the public."Featured image is reproduced from Walther König's recent monograph on Morton Bartlett, 'Secret Universe.' continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 8 x 9.75 in. / 104 pgs / 36 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $53.95 ISBN: 9783863351625 PUBLISHER: Walther König, Köln AVAILABLE: 8/31/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR
Published by Walther König, Köln. Edited and with foreword by Udo Kittelmann, Claudia Dichter. Text by Lee Kogan.
When the freelance photographer and graphic designer Morton Bartlett (1909–1992) died at the age of 83, his relatives found 15 chests among his possessions. Each chest contained a half-life-size doll and its accessories: 12 girls and three boys, a wardrobe of hand-sewn clothes, black-and-white photographs of each doll as well as countless studies and archival materials. Bartlett began designing these dolls in the mid-1930s, studying anatomy books and histories of costume, and learning to sew and mold with clay to make them as true to life as possible. Each doll entailed a huge amount of labor, taking up to a year to complete; Bartlett created costumes and wigs for each one and then staged them in lifelike scenarios and photographed them, documenting a family he had never had and creating a body of work that would remain unexhibited during his lifetime. The third installment in the Bahnhof Museum’s series on outsider artists, this volume examines Bartlett’s extraordinary lifelong obsession.
