Morton Bartlett

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Morton Bartlett (Boston, 1903-1992) was one of the most notable 20th century outsider artists who worked in photography.

[edit] Life

Bartlett was an orphan, he never married, and he lived alone for all his life. After attending Harvard for two years he struggled to earn a living. He passed through a succession of jobs, ranging from crafts magazine editor, gas station attendant, making gift cards, and running a printing business.

[edit] Works

Although untrained in art, he worked in sculpture and photography. Bartlett first began to make his dolls in 1936, the same year that Hans Bellmer's book The Doll was published in Paris. Over the following 25 years, Bartlett carved and dressed numerous sculpted dolls (about 15 have survived), and created a photographic record of them which amounts to about 200 monochrome photographic prints and 17 colour slides. He was also a collector of anatomy books. The dolls and photographs were found after his death, and have since been shown in books and gallery exhibitions.

"Morton Bartlett is already considered a great outsider artist by many." wrote the New York Times (08.08.2007)

In both his art work and his manner of living, he has been compared to the outsider artists Hans Bellmer and Henry Darger. His dolls inspired Jake and Dinos Chapman (the Zygotic sculptures, circa 1995).

In early 2008 one of the dolls sold at auction for $110,000 U.S.