Eliana Willis

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    in Exhibitions

    How Joseph E. Yoakum, an Enigmatic Former Circus Hand and Untrained Artist, Found Drawing in His 70s—and the Hairy Who as Admirers

    In 1962, Joseph E. Yoakum had a dream that told him to make drawings. 
    He was 71 then, a retired veteran and one-time circus hand living in Chicago. He had no experience making art. But for the next decade of his life—his last, it would turn out—drawing was what he did, churning out some 2,000 wondrous pieces in the process. 
    Most came in the form of dreamy landscapes, tethered equally to the natural world and the artist’s own fantastical one: scalloped mountains and pristine pools of water, forests that look like heads of romanesco, and winding roads that disappear into the horizon line. A sense of yearning pervades it all.
    The old adage about the Velvet Underground—that only 10,000 people bought their first album, but that every one of them started a band—also applies to Yoakum. Not many people saw his drawings, but those who did came away as immediate and lifelong fans.  
    That was certainly the case with Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Karl Wirsum, and Ray Yoshida—all members of the influential group of Chicago Imagists, the Hairy Who, who were among Yoakum’s most ardent admirers since meeting the self-taught artist in 1968. (Brown would later compare their discovery of Yoakum to Picasso’s discovery of Henri Rousseau.)
    Now, thanks in large part to significant loans from that group, others will get the chance to fall in love with Yoakum’s work, too. A major survey of the late artist’s output—the largest ever mounted—is on view now at the Art Institute of Chicago, with subsequent stops at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Menil Collection in Houston planned for October of 2021 and April of 2022, respectively.  
    Joseph E. Yoakum, Waianae Mtn Range Entrance to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu Oahu of Hawaiian Islands (1968). Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
    “Jim [Nutt] once told me, “The only reason I can figure that Yoakum doesn’t have greater visibility is that he doesn’t have a weird backstory,’” recalled Mark Pascale, curator of prints and drawings at the Art institute and an organizer of the show.   
    “Yoakum,” Pascale explained, “was just a regular person.” 
    Well, sort of. The artist may have lived a rather regular life, but that’s not how he told it. Yoakum had a habit of fabricating stories about who he was and where he’d been. He was a full-blooded Native American, he told some (or a “Nava-joe” Indian, as he put it); he had a dozen brothers and sisters, he told others.   
    What we do know is that Yoakum, an African American, was born in Ash Grove, Missouri in 1891. He left home at nine to join the circus, and spent the next 10 years of his life traveling throughout the United States and, eventually, Asia, with various acts. In 1918, he enlisted in the army, through which he was stationed in Canada and then Europe.
    Roughly 40 years later, after multiple failed marriages, he settled in a storefront apartment on Chicago’s South Side. It was there that he first began showing his work, hanging drawings in the window. And it quickly became clear that all the travels of his youth had a demonstrable influence.
    Joseph E. Yoakum, American Zeppolin Flight from New York City to Paris France in Year 1939 (1969). Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
    Yoakum’s drawings were almost always captioned with specific (and often playfully misspelled) names—so specific that you’d assume they were based on places he’d actually been to.
    “Mt Baykal of Yablonvy Mtn Range near Ulan-Ude near Lake Baykal of Lower Siberia Russia E Asia,” reads one.
    “The Open Gate to the West in Rockey Mtn Range near Pueblo Colorado,” says another.
    Whether the artist had ever been to these places is unknown, and because of his penchant for stretching the truth, we may never know. But when it comes to his work, that may not be relevant. 
    By his own assertion, Yoakum accessed these places through a process that he called “spiritual enfoldment.” The phrase was drawn from the literature of Christian Science (Yoakum was a devout believer) and was used by the artist to describe how he used art to locate memory.  
    “He’d make the drawing, he’d have a spiritual enfoldment, he would recognize where the place was, and then he would label it,” Pascale said.
    Joseph E. Yoakum, Mt Baykal of Yablonvy Mtn Range near Ulan-Ude near Lake Baykal of Lower Siberia Russia E Asia (1969). Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
    There’s a common misconception, given the Imagist’s interest in Yoakum, that he had a great deal of influence on their work. And it’s not hard to draw a line between their brand of representation and his own. But that’s not quite right, explained Pascale. Nutt, Nilsson, and the other Imagists were almost fully formed as artists by the time they discovered Yoakum in the late 1960s. 
    If there was one thing that the movement’s members found in Yoakum’s work, though, it’s an interior picture. 
    “[The Imagists] were all trying to find their way as artists,” said Pascale. “They were looking for this place inside of themselves that was unique. With Yoakum, there it was—this guy found it.”
    In a sense, it was the only thing Yoakum had. By the time he made his drawings, he was estranged from his children and had outlived all his ex-wives. He was alone.
    Joseph E. Yoakum, Mt Cloubelle Jamaca of West India (1969). Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
    “My takeaway, from all the years I’ve spent thinking about it, is that the landscape drawings that Yoakum made are a picture story of his life,” said Pascale.
    “They are his self-portrait, his autobiography. It’s like 10 years at the end of his life spent making a visual diary of where he was, where he had been, and where he had hoped to go, where he felt most excited and comfortable, and where he felt he lived the most.” 
    “Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw” is on view now through October 18, 2021 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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    in Street Art

    “LIBERTÉ” by WESLART in Taule, France

    Urban artist Wesl just finished a mural entitled “LIBERTÉ” in “Place de la Mairie”, Taule, France. This piece is a part of The Mx Arts Tour 2021. “LIBERTÉ” is a reflection about the values and importance of a good education to the children — the importance of building good wings to be free and to fly.We´re responsible for improving the present and creating the future. Art and culture is a common good that improves and transforms society at all levels. Wesl is born in Toledo, Spain, a place where he began with the world of graffiti in 1991, with the need to express himself and change the gray walls that flood us in our daily lives, to give color and harmony, and from the street, a museum. He has participated in numerous national and international festivals, such as Meeting of Styles (Germany, Spain), Upfest (England), Yard5 (Berlin) and in different art fairs. More

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    in Street Art

    “Google Car” by Biancoshock in Corsica

    Italian artist Biancoshock is back with a new site specific sculpture for Popularte Festival – Corsica. The sculpture features the artist’s rendition of a Google maps car.Time flows and each place requires a different speed. In the cities everything must be updated in real time, in the small villages nothing changes so quickly. Google Cars are the examples of the need to be always updated, informed and reachable. They continuously map the cities, while rarely passing through small towns.Biancoshock, during a festival in the mountains of Corsica, noted on Google Maps that the Google Car passed once in that village in 2009 and then never again. On the hood of the abandoned Google Car there is a local map that helps visitors orientate themselves in the mountains (even if the sculpture has been placed out of the maps…)From the beginning, Biancoshock expresses himself mainly through independent urban installations, different from each other in terms of technique, materials and subjects, but united by the same intent: to offer a starting point for reflection – sometimes ironically, other times provocatively – to the passer-by, trying to emotionally disturb his daily routine.Check out below to view more photos of the installation. More

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    in Exhibitions

    Berlin’s Embattled Humboldt Forum Has Opened Its Doors at Last. Can It Persuade Its Critics to Give It a Chance?

    The highly anticipated—and highly criticized—Humboldt Forum will finally open its doors to the public in Berlin tomorrow after years of delays.
    The €680 million ($802 million) cultural institution will open with six shows this week, followed by a staggered rollout of further exhibitions in the fall and early next year.
    Since its originally planned opening in December was effectively canceled due to the pandemic, the building has stood empty, apart from the curators working inside. Patio chairs dotting the main courtyard did little to add warmth to the Franco Stella-designed building, which is both a plaster-cast ode to the Prussian palace that once stood on the site before World War II, and a hyper-modern structure of cold concrete.
    The opening of the more closely watched parts of the institution—the ethnological and Asian art collections—will open on September 22. Early next year, a temporary exhibition of the Berlin State Museums’ Benin bronze collection, one of the largest in the world, will open, and Germany has pledged to begin restitution that year to Nigeria. Further sections of those collections’ displays will open at the same time, including those related to South America, Islam, and southeast Asia.
    Exhibition view “terrible beauty” © Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss / Photo: Alexander Schippel
    Society and Nature
    For now, the first and second floors of the building will host large-scale public shows that address the intersection of society and nature. The building’s name comes from Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian-era scientist and naturalist who is thought to have been one of the first to discuss human-induced climate change. (He was also complicit in colonial-era expeditions where he carried out his research.)
    Highlights of the Humboldt’s inaugural program include “Terrible Beauty: Elephant. Human. Ivory,” an exhibition that looks at the history of the ivory trade, and spans the millennia of human’s fascination with the animal part.
    “Ivory has a unique relationship with nature and culture,” said one of the show’s co-curators, Alberto Saviello. “It is a symbol of purity, wealth, and power, but also ruthless exploitation of nature and humans.” The show drives home the illicit industry’s global scale. Historical objects, like the first-known sculpture of mammoth, carved with mammoth tooth ivory, dates back 40,000 years, a delicately carved jewelry box from 16th-century Sri Lanka, and a crushed car from a failed elephant rescue mission are set within a blood-red space. In the entire exhibition, one can hear the labored breathing of a dying elephant.”
    Exhibition view “terrible beauty” © Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss / Photo: Alexander Schippel.
    After all the criticism around how objects arrived into the Humboldt’s collections, the exhibition remains slightly opaque on provenance. More often than not, details about the source of objects are not included in the show’s many instructional panels; instead, they’re tucked into red drawers that one needs to pull out to read.
    Despite its sturdy exterior, the Humboldt Forum lies on increasingly fragile ethical ground. In the more than 10 years since its plans were drawn up, awareness around Europe’s long history of illicit acquisitions has moved from academic backwaters into mainstream news headlines.
    One of the most engaging shows is the Humboldt Lab’s second-floor exhibition “After Nature,” which takes a novel and deconstructed approach to a scientific show about how climate change and species extinction is interrelated with democracy.
    Kulturprojekte Berlin and Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin. Photo: Alexander Schippel.
    Glass vitrines hang from a gridded metal track on the ceiling in rows. The interactive exhibition is a sort of wunderkammer of diverse items that reconsider the political ideologies inextricably entwined in scientific research. The show’s curator, Johanna Stapelfeldt, described it as an act of “ambivalent remembering.”
    Of course, even with the inaugural offering of ambitious exhibitions, the institution continues to draw discussions about whether it should even exist at all. The German Democratic Republic’s parliament, the Palast der Republik, stood in the same spot until 2006, when it was torn down to make way for what would become the Humboldt Forum. An exhibition in the cellar tries to offer some reconciliatory perspective by showing the many manifestations of the site from the relics that were found in the dig—conveying how the location has an even longer history than the Prussian era. Through its halls, small pieces of the Palast der Republik hang or appear on special displays. (A permanent video panorama by design bureau chezweitz tells the story of the location’s history more effectively.)
    “I don’t think anyone would have torn down the Palast der Republik today,” said Alfred Hagemann, head of the Humboldt’s “history of the site” department.
    It is indeed encouraging to finally see the museum’s intellectual prowess working in concert with the building, but how well it will all play out given the challenges that remain in public opinion is an open question.
    The Humboldt Forum in Berlin opens July 20.
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    in Exhibitions

    Nairy Baghramian’s New Marble Sculpture in the Berkshire Wilds Reflects on the Strength and Fragility of the Human Body—See It Here

    As we wrote last week, the Clark Institute’s outdoor show “Ground/work” is one of summer’s more exciting events, offering visitors the chance to engage with bold public artworks outdoors, at the institution’s sprawling Berkshires campus. 
    And one of the show’s most fun and resonant works is that of Iranian-German artist Nairy Baghramian, whose installation Knee and Elbow (2020) represents the feeling many of us in the last year can share. In the piece, two abstracted forms of two of the body’s primary joints—carved from marble and steel—face off and work together at the same time, suggesting the dual modes of strength and fragility that people around the world have had to endure throughout the pandemic.
    The blocks of marble are “heavily veined and pitted on their surface, suggesting, in the artist’s words, ‘possible collapse,’” according to the show’s notes. At the same time, their power—the ability of knees and elbows to hold the body up—is also emphasized through the work’s dynamic, humorous nature, suggesting themes of hope, possibility, and change. Furthermore, the artist sought to shift the joints from their usual orientation so they could “rest and recover from the stress and impact of daily use.” 
    The Clark also notes that Baghramian—who has long dealt with issues of vulnerability, power, and authority through her careful deconstructions of the human form—sought to build the artwork near the top of Stone Hill’s open meadow, to which visitors must hike. The sculpture’s vantage point, the show notes, “encourages viewers to find a moment of contemplation and pause as the panorama of the landscape unfolds below.”   
    See images of the work below.
    Nairy Baghramian’s “Knee and Elbow” (2020). Photo courtesy the Clark Institute.
    Nairy Baghramian’s “Knee and Elbow” (2020). Photo courtesy the Clark Institute.

    The artist on a site visit to the sculpture. Photo courtesy the Clark Institute.
    Behind the scenes into the making of the sculpture. Photo courtesy the Clark Institute.
    A portrait of the artist. Photo courtesy the Clark Institute.
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    in Street Art

    Clown Skateboards – Guest Art Project – Adam Neate

    Adam Neate, an old friend of Clown Skateboards and self-taught artist, is next up to bat in their Guest Art Project series. Neate’s boards are a reflection of the ‘family’ that is the skateboarding community. By celebrating gender fluidity in today’s society, the triptych proclaims that love and mutual support are far more important than gender.Putting this ethos into practice, this edition of Family will be pressed at the Far Skate Foundation, a charitable organisation which empowers young people through skateboarding, and will be hand screened by Clown’s master printer Tommy.An acclaimed British painter, conceptual artist and one of the world’s best-known street artists, Adam Neate began his career painting the streets, whilst also skating them.“Those years were my art school,” says Neate. “I learnt about colour and composition simply through practice. The critics were there every day…”Now based in São Paulo, Brazil, his work is displayed in collections around the world. A fearless painter, he has developed his own language of ‘Dimensional Painting’ where the viewer moves and changes the painting depending on their vantage point, to get the full multi-dimensional effect.‘Reconnecting with Adam on the Guest Art Project was always a priority for us. When he first delivered the new artwork for the boards, we were sold with not just the art, but also the message. Skateboarding is such a great support network and loving community and we think these boards truly reflect how open skateboarding is to all communities. It is just such a perfect fit for what we are about and what we are trying to achieve through ‘IN Action’.’ – Jeff Boardman, Clown Skateboards FounderThe Family sets will be the most complex hand-printed series in Clown’s history. Each set is made using 26 screens and hand-produced in a way that does justice to the original artwork. This will be a signed and numbered edition of only 35 sets.Adam’s Family is released on the 20th July at the Guest Art Project – www.clownskateboards.com/guest-art-projectwww.instagram.com/clown_skateboardswww.instagram.com/adam_neate More

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    in Street Art

    BodyWork – INSA

    BodyWork is a brand new collection from the UK-based artist INSA – the show opened recently at Oakland Gallery in the town’s Victoria Quarter and runs until Sunday September 5.Held in collaboration with New Brighton Street Art and Motobüro, the multi-space show features new original works including prints, paintings and sculptural pieces.At the centre of the show is a very rare 1968 Lincoln Continental MK3, Cartier Edition, which has been customised by the artist and automotive specialists Motobüro, who oversaw the restoration of the vintage car, which has taken more than six months to complete. Roughly 18 layers of candy paint, metal flake, pearlescent white, lacquer and countless hours sanding for the flawless paint job and then INSA together with sculptor Kristian Movahed created the boot piece transforming this car into a rolling art display.In addition to the Lincoln Continental, BodyWork also includes a Harris Magnum motorbike, treated with as much care and attention to detail as the car, hand-crafted wooden sculptures and light-boxes all featuring INSA’s trademark ‘graffiti fetish’ artwork.Explaining the work in the show, INSA said: “Maybe it’s lockdown or maybe it’s the fact I’ve mainly been working in the digital/public space for the last few years that for this exhibition I really wanted to make some physically tangible pieces. I wanted to enjoy the craft and hard work of making real things. To bring together my past commentary on identity, commodification and object fetishism with an appreciation of the material within it. Extracting the material from materialism. As simple as enjoying the wood of the surfboard or the metal of the car – the bodywork of physical labour.”Robert Jones, creative director of New Brighton Street Art added: “We are delighted to have been able to work with INSA on this important and significant show, which brings together some truly innovative and ground-breaking content. It not only cements our collaboration and relationship with one of the leading exponents of contemporary art, but also acknowledges New Brighton’s status as a credible and creative destination.”A graduate of Goldsmith’s, London, INSA established his art career more than 20 years ago as a graffiti writer. In 2004 he rejected the traditional graffiti style and began painting the instantly recognisable high heel shoe. Graffiti Fetish went on to appear on buildings around the world from LA to Lagos. It also appeared on luxury items including designer footwear, clothing and bespoke interiors.Always keen to push boundaries and innovate further, INSA has gained a huge following for his work globally, and which he has expanded through his recent experiments with social and digital media as well as product collaborations with brands including Nike. His work is held in the V&A permanent collection, and has also been presented at Tate Britain, London.www.instagram.com/insa_gramwww.oaklandgallery.co.ukwww.gif-iti.com More

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    in Exhibitions

    Get an Exclusive Look at the Totally Wacky NFTs Urs Fischer Is About to Sell Through Pace (And Do Your Best to Make Sense of Them)

    Next week, half a dozen newly minted NFTs by artist Urs Fischer will go on view in a digital exhibition hosted by Pace, another step in the gallery’s full-fledged commitment to crypto-art.  
    The show, presented in collaboration with the Loïc Gouzer-founded Fair Warning auction app and the digital market platform MakersPlace, will live on Pace’s website. 
    Each of Fisher’s NFTs features two quotidian objects floating in a blank white space like a trippy screensaver, constantly converging with one another to form Frankensteinian compound-sculptures: a broccoli stalk bisecting a green sponge, a showerhead merging with a red Nike shoe. Weird stuff. 
    The works belong to “CHAOS,” a larger series of 501 NFTs produced by the Swiss artist.
    For buyers, each piece comes with a reference rendering, access to the raw data behind the visuals, and instructions for how to exhibit it.
    “The individual objects selected for ‘CHAOS’ are engineered, cultured, or manufactured by humans and sourced from the physical world and transformed into a 3D digital model through 3D scanning,” the project’s website explains. They’ll be offered up for $50,000 a pop, according to the gallery. 
    The artist will offset the carbon emissions involved in the minting of each work through a partnership with the nonprofit Conservation International. 
    Urs Fischer, CHAOS #23 Splendor (2021). Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
    Fischer debuted “CHAOS” in April when he partnered with Pace to sell the first entry in the series, CHAOS #1 Human, which depicts a lighter colliding with an egg.
    The work sold through Fair Warning for $97,700. (The collaboration reportedly caused a rift between the artist and his longtime dealer, Gagosian.) Pace did not disclose the prices for the new NFTs.
    The first 500 “CHAOS” works will be unveiled over the course of several months. After that, a capstone 501st artwork, composed of all the objects in the pieces that came before it, will be minted. 
    Among mega-galleries, Pace has been perhaps the most ardent embracer of the crypto art wave. Earlier this month, the gallery announced that it would accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment for all artworks, physical or digital. And in September, it will launch its own dedicated platform for selling artists’ NFTs.
    See more examples from Fisher’s upcoming show below.
    Urs Fischer, CHAOS #20 Sashay (2021). Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
    Urs Fischer, CHAOS #22 Simulacrum (2021). Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
    Urs Fischer, CHAOS #24 Analysand (2021). Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
    Urs Fischer, CHAOS #25 Gratis (2021). Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
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