JUDITH SCOTT
American, b. 1943 – d. 2005c.v. ⇒
image gallery
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about
Judith Scott was born with Down syndrome and lost her hearing soon after birth from scarlet fever. Scott was institutionalized from the time she was seven years old until she was forty-four; at that time, her sister gained custody of her and took her to San Francisco. While there, Scott enrolled at the Creative Growth Art Center, where she began making sculpture.
Scott constructed her sculptures by assembling discarded objects she found, and sometimes stole, from the Creative Growth Art Center. She meticulously wrapped these objects together with yarn and fabric until they re-formed into one new object. The found objects that had once functioned as a fan, a hair dryer, a book, or a chair, abandoned their function in the transformative hands of Scott.
Scott’s work challenges the traditional definition of the artist: does her lack of understanding or articulation of a philosophy mean that her art has less value? Perhaps it causes us, instead, to question the ways in which we make and quantify meaning.
Curriculum Vitae
Permanent Museum Collections
ABCD Collection (Art Brut Connaissance & Diffusion), Paris & Prague
Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY
Intuit (The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art), Chicago, IL
L’Aracine Musee D’Art Brut, Paris, France
Musee D’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Oakland Museum of California
Exhibitions and Shows
2006
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
Collection de Museum de l’art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
Forming Lines, Ricco Maresca Gallery, NY
Collection de Museum de l’art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
2005
Intuit Fair, Chicago , IL
All People Are Me, Headfooters Gallery, Columbus Ohio
Oakland Museum of California, at Oakland Airport
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Outsider Art Fair, New York , NY
2004
Jack Fisher Gallery, San Francisco
Outsider Art Fair, New York , NY
2003
Black Rainbow, Lucky Tackle, Berkeley, CA
Down to Art , Japan Down Syndrome Foundation, Tokyo , Japan
2002
Judith Scott, Ricco-Maresca Gallery , New York , NY
What did we learn? - The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA
2001
The Fiber Art of Judith Scott, Musee de l’art Brut, Lausanne , Switzerland
Judith Scott, Palais Joyce, Paris , France
Judith Scott, The Shiseido Foundation, Tokyo , Japan
The News Gallery, New York, NY
Judith Scott, Ricco-Maresca Gallery , New York , NY
2000
Treasures of the Soul, American Visionary Art Museum , Baltimore , MD
Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott, Intuit Gallery, Chicago , IL
1998
L’Aracine Art Brut Museum, Paris, France
1997
Creative Growth Artists, Ricco-Maresca Gallery, New York , NY
1995
Visions From the Left Coast , Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum
1994
Windows on the Waterfront, Oakland , CA
1991
McCann-Erickson Corporation, San Francisco , CA
BOOKS
John MacGregor, Ph.D.: Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott, published by Creative Growth Art Center, 1999
.
Joyce Scot:t EnTWINed: A Story of Loss, Reunion and Miracles. (In Preparation)
Leon Borensztein (photographer): One is Adam one is Superman, published by Creative Growth Art Center, 2004.
Pascal Rebetz: On m'appelait Judith Scott, published by Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne.
SELECTED ARTICLES:
Anon, "Quenouilles" Profil Magazine, Geneva, May 2006.
Edward M. Gomez, “Arts in America : Building a Refuge of Respectability for Art on the Fringe,” New York Times, January 18, 2001.
Cara Jepsen, “Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott,” Chicago Reader, September 8, 2000 , vol. 29, no. 49, p 4.
Rachele Kanigel, “Entwined,” Readers Digest, August 2003, p 117-121.
John MacGregor, Ph.D., “Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott,” The Outsider, vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 2000, p 6, 10-18.
John MacGregor, Ph.D., “Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott,” Visions: American Visionary Art Museum, 2000, vol. 6, p 14-18.
David, Maclagan, “Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott (book review),” Raw Vision, no. 31, summer 2000, p 71-72.
Michael O’Sullivan, “On Exhibit: Wealth Beyond Measure", Washington Post Weekend, October 13, 2000, p 59-60.
Barbara Lee Smith, “Judith Scott: Finding a Voice,” Fiber Arts Magazine, Summer 2001, p 36-39.
“USA: Judith Scott’s Fiber Art Forms at Intuit,” Raw Vision, no. 32, fall 2000, p 18.
Evelyn Nieves, "Artist emerges withworks in a private language" NY Times, June 25, 2001 .
Anon, “Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott,” Common Ground, 108, Summer 2001 .
Roberta Smith, "Art so out it’s almost in " NY Times, Jan 19, 2001 .
Tessa DeCarlo, "A Purist's Kind of Outsider Art" NY Times, Jan 14, 2001 (Report on American Folk Art Museum exhibition).
FILMS
OUTSIDER: The Life and Art of Judith Scott - by Betsy Bayha
(see: www.judithscottdocumentary.org)
LES COCONS MAGIQUES DE JUDITH SCOTT by Phillipe Lespinasse (available on CD in English and French from the Collection de l'Art Brut www.artbrut.ch)
