Judith Scott (artist)

Judith Scott

Artworks by Judith Scott
Born (1943-05-01)1 May 1943
Cincinnati, Ohio
Died 15 March 2005(2005-03-15) (aged 61)
Dutch Flat, California[1]
Nationality American
Movement Fiber art
Outsider art

Judith Scott (May 1, 1943 – March 15, 2005) became an internationally renowned American fiber sculptor.[2] She was the fraternal twin of Joyce Scott, and was born with Down syndrome and lived her life profoundly deaf and mute.[3][4] She was sent to an Ohio state institution when she was seven and remained there until her sister became her guardian 35 years later. In 1987 Judith was enrolled at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California which supports people with developmental disabilities.[5]

Upbringing

Judith Scott was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and spent her first seven and a half years at home with her parents, twin sister and older brothers. Although the developmental gap between the two girls was apparent, "the parents consciously sought to treat these youngest members of the family alike." [6][7]

Education

When it was time for the girls to start attending school, Judith was found to be "ineducable," not even qualified for the class for children with learning disabilities. Her deafness unrecognized, she was thought to be profoundly disabled. Consequently, on medical advice, her parents placed Judith in the Columbus State Institution (formerly the Columbus State School) an institution for the mentally disabled, on October 18, 1950. This separation had a profound effect on both twins.

The records from Judith Scott's first few years at the Institution indicate that she had an IQ of 30 (based upon oral testing before her deafness was recognized). For this reason she was denied any training opportunities. Deprived of her twin, Judith became severely alienated, and behavioral problems soon surfaced. Her Clinical Record states that "She does not seem to be in good contact with her environment. She does not get along well with other children, is restless, eats messily, tears her clothing, and beats other children. Her presence on the ward is a disturbing influence".[6][7] Soon after she was moved to a smaller state institution at Gallipolis, Ohio.[8]

In 1985, Joyce Scott became her sister’s legal guardian, and brought Judith to live with her in California, a state where all mentally disabled citizens are entitled to an ongoing education.[7]


Judith Scott died of natural causes at her sister's home in Dutch Flat, California, a few weeks short of her 62nd birthday.[1][7] She outlived her life expectancy at birth by almost fifty years.[9]

Art

sculpture by Judith Scott
Sculpture by Judith Scott
Ode to Judith Ann Scott, by Simon Slate

On April 1, 1987, Judith Scott began attending the Creative Growth Art Center. In her first few months at the center, Judith was unexceptional with paint. She scribbled loops and circles, but her work contained no representational imagery, and she was so uninterested in creating that the staff was considering ending her involvement with the program.

Some months later Judith casually observed a fiber art class conducted by visiting artist Sylvia Seventy, and using the materials at hand, spontaneously invented her own unique and radically different form of artistic expression. While other students were stitching, she was sculpting with an unprecedented zeal and concentration.

Her creative gifts and absolute focus were quickly recognized, and she was given complete freedom to choose her own materials. Taking whatever objects she found, regardless of ownership, she would wrap them in carefully selected colored yarns to create diverse sculptures of many different shapes. Some resemble cocoons or body parts, while others are elongated totemic poles. Many of her works also feature pairs, reflecting Scott's experience as a twin.

Scott's work has become immensely popular in the world of outsider art, and her pieces sell for substantial sums.[10] Scott is now hailed as a contemporary artist, no longer just an outsider.[11][12] Her art is held in the permanent collections of many museums, including: Museum of Modern Art (Manhattan, New York), the American Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore, Maryland), Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, Museum of American Folk Art (Manhattan, New York), Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Chicago, Illinois), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA. L’Aracine Musee D’Art Brut (Paris, France), Art Brut Connaissance & Diffusion Collection (Paris and Prague), Collection de l'art brut (Lausanne, Switzerland).[13]

Film

In 2006, San Francisco filmmaker Betsy Bayha released the 30 minute documentary Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott.[14] In the same year, Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel released the feature-length documentary ¿Qué tienes debajo del sombrero? (What's under your hat?) about Scott[15] and Philippe Lespinasse released Les cocons magiques de Judith Scott, a documentary filmed a few weeks before Scott's death.[16] In 2009, Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn produced the documentary Make that examined the lives and art-making techniques of Judith Scott and self-taught artists Royal Robertson, Hawkins Bolden and Ike Morgan.[17][18][19]

References

  1. 1 2 Marech, Rona (19 March 2005). "Judith Scott -- renowned for her fiber art sculptures". San Franscisco Chronicle.
  2. ↑ Downes, Lawrence. "An Artist Who Wrapped and Bound Her Work, and Then Broke Free". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott" Beacon Press, Boston
  4. ↑ Smith, Barbara Lee (2001). "Judith Scott: Finding a Voice". Fiberarts Magazine (Summer): 36–39.
  5. ↑ "Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott" Beacon Press, Boston
  6. 1 2 John Monroe MacGregor; Judith Scott; Leon Borensztein (September 1999). Metamorphosis: the fiber art of Judith Scott : the outsider artist and the experience of Down's syndrome. Creative Growth Art Center. pp. 44, 50. ISBN 978-0-9673160-0-0. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Joyce Wallace Scott: "Entwined:Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scot" Beacon Press, Boston
  8. ↑ "Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott" Beacon Press, Boston
  9. ↑ "Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott" Beacon Press, Boston
  10. ↑ Artist Emerges With Works in a 'Private Language', by Evelyn Nieves, New York Times, June 25, 2001
  11. ↑ "Entwined: Sisters and Secrets in the Silent World of Artist Judith Scott" Beacon Press, Boston
  12. ↑ "Judith Scott - Bound and Unbound" Brooklyn Museum, 2015
  13. ↑ http://www.judithandjoyce.com
  14. ↑ Bayha, Betsy. "Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott".
  15. ↑ "What's under your hat?". juliomedem.org.
  16. ↑ "Les cocons magiques de Judith Scott". Collection de l'art brut. 2006.
  17. ↑ "OUTSIDERS ON THE SCREEN". #67 Fall/Autumn 2009. Raw Vis ion. 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  18. ↑ Taylor, Kate (16 April 2009). "Communicating Across Barriers Few Could Imagine". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ Ogden, Scott; Malcolm Hearn (2009). "Make". Retrieved 28 February 2011.

External links

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