James Castle (1899-1977) spent his formative years in remote Garden Valley, Idaho and his adult life at locations near Boise, where, for nearly seven decades, he devoted himself daily to intensive art-making. Castle worked with materials that were immediately available, including a wide range of ephemera?advertisements, periodicals, and packaging?that he manipulated with soot, sticks, string and improvised colours to create an elaborate and unmistakable representation of his world. Subjects range from the farms of Garden Valley and interiors of homes, to family members, household objects, and snippets of popular culture. Other works move beyond the documentary to include invented. SELLING POINTS: ? Features fifty-four pieces acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2013 ? A fully representative selection of the artist's immense oeuvre, including drawings, handmade books, texts, and constructions ? Highlights the remarkable quality of Castle's vision, and gives an insight into the world of one of the most enigmatic American artists of the twentieth century
