James Castle (1899-1977) lived all his life among his relatives in rural Idaho. He was born deaf and never learne...
Works by James Castle: Untitled (Chicken), n.d. , Untitled (alphabet), n.d. , Untitled (figure 0213), n.d. , Untitled (figure), n.d. , Untitled (Falk's), n.d. , Untitled (landscape with farm), n.d. , Untitled (cityscape), n.d. , Untitled (figure reading), n.d. , Untitled (KARAMOJA), n.d. , Untitled , n.d. , Untitled ,...
James Castle (1899 - 1977), an American self-taught artist, was born deaf and received very little formal education. He appears to have refused to learn to speak, sign, read, or write, and he left his native state of Idaho only once. Castle was deeply aware of his surroundings and possessed a vivid imagination; these qualities, as well as his acute visual sense and manual inventiveness led to a remarkable body of work made from everyday materials gathered in his home in Garden Valley, where he lived with his parents, brothers and sisters. Castle's art includes drawings and colour wash paintings, cardboard and paper constructions, handmade books, and word, sign, and symbol pieces.As a child Castle devised his favourite method of working, whereby he mixed stove soot with spit, applying the resulting 'ink' with sticks and wads of cotton to found materials such as discarded paper and packaging materials. Many of these drawings are truly remarkable in their directness and sensitivity.Castle's art reflects a search for meaning and identity in a quiet rural world that he may often have found difficult to understand. When visitors came to the family farm, Castle sometimes used to approach and show them his latest drawings; if they didn't respond sympathetically he would turn on his heel and withdraw. To Castle, it seems, his drawings were a way of making sense of life; just as importantly, he wished, much of the time, to share his perceptions with those around him.A retrospective of the work of James Castle, organised by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is currently being shown at the Art Institute of Chicago.A new publication, including an essay by Joseph Grigely, will accompany this exhibition.The Douglas Hyde Gallery warmly thanks Jacqueline Crist, of the J Crist Gallery, Boise, Idaho, for her help and support of the exhibition. It would not have been realised without her.
Facsimiles of books made by James Castle. From the Idaho Center for the Book. They are listed under "Previous Publications." The largest book lying down in the front is 6.25 inches high, the three small ones are 3.5 inches high. My blog entry on James Castle is here.
James Castle, (Blue House), c. 1910–1977. Color wash on found paper, sheet: 4 7/8 × 6 13/16 in. (12.4 × 17.3 cm) Image: 4 7/8 × 6 13/16 in. (12.4 × 17.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Drawing Committee, the Director’s Discretionary Funds, and partial gift of an anonymous donor 2017.94. © James Castle Collection and Archive LP. All rights reserved
Peter Freeman, Inc., founded in 1990, represents leading international artists and the estates of several generations, spanning the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, and specializes in important historical works with particular emphasis on early Pop, Minimal, and Conceptual Art. The gallery presents at least five exhibitions each year of work we believe is especially relevant to the art of our time. Solo exhibitions highlight the rich way in which artists respond to the materials, forces, and questions of the day. Focused group exhibitions explore significant movements, themes, and ideas that continue to influence and define our culture. The historic works handled by the gallery over the past thirty years are broad-ranging and can often be defined by their rarity and significance. In 2006, Peter Freeman partnered with Galerie Nelson to establish what would eventually become Peter Freeman, Inc., Paris in 2013. The gallery, both in New York and in Paris, has always presented historically significant works in conversation with newer work by living artists. For this reason, much of our business has been with museums. Peter Freeman also publishes scholarly books, including a catalogue raisonné Robert Mangold: Early Works, with text by Robert Storr; the first US catalogue on the works of Charlotte Posenenske; several catalogues on Medardo Rosso; James Ensor: Paintings, with text by Xavier Tricot; the first monograph of Catherine Murphy, with text by John Yau and Svetlana Alpers; a facsimile edition of Mangelos’s Pythagoras with an essay by Branka Stipančić; and the artist book Tide, a collaboration with Silvia Bächli and the writer Jamaica Kincaid. The gallery is a member of the Art Dealers Association of America.
Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, (and to those of you spread elsewhere in the world, I hope you all had a lovely weekend!) We were bu...
James Castle was deaf artist who lived much of his life on subsistence farms in rural Idaho and neither pursued nor received recognition for his remarkable art during his lifetime. Now recognized as a master—the subject of major shows at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008 and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in 2011—Castle made small, intimate works of art composed of soot and spit, materials he turned into agents of prodigious, if deeply personal, achievement.
James Castle-interior with stove / interior with coffee grinder), 20th c. Soot and color of unknown origin on paper.
James Castle. Untitled. c. 1935. a: Soot and spit on cardboard b: Soot and spit on cardboard. 8 5/8 x 12 3/4" (21.9 x 32.4 cm). The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift. 1404.2005.a-b. © 2025 James Castle. Drawings & Prints
James Castle spent most of his time producing art, setting up shows in chicken coops or sheds, documenting these shows with more art.
Today's castle wedding is a feast of pretty flowers and the perfect balance of relaxed formality..
having no access to traditional art making materials, deaf and mute artist james castle often used salvaged supplies to create his art.
At the outskirts of Boise, Idaho, in a subdivision of modest homes on neat lawn rectangles, the deaf-mute artist James Castle (1899-1977) used handmade art...
James Castle (September 25, 1899 – October 26, 1977) was an American artist who was “able to believe, as any good artist must, that the things he knows best because they are his own will turn out to be true for other people”. Born in Garden Valley, Idaho, the fifth of postmaster Francis J. … Continue reading "James Castle: The Artist Who Showed Us An America Hard To See"
James Castle. Untitled (Coat Construction). c. 1925. Paper, soot, spit, and string. 11 1/8 x 6 1/2" (28.3 x 41 cm). Gift of the Family of James Castle. 9.1999. © 2025 James Castle. Drawings & Prints
In 1899, in the remote Idahoan village of Garden Valley, James Castle was born completely deaf. For the rest of his life, he couldn’t hear, speak, read, or write. Our only glimpses into his mind are the drawings and collages he created using scavenged paper and soot mixed with his own spit.
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Fleisher/Ollman is a Philadelphia art gallery featuring work by contemporary artists working both inside and outside of the mainstream, as well as 20th century self-taught masters.
James Castle: People, Places & Things at the NY Studio School – Art Spiel
