Dwight Mackintosh (Alum)

Born in Hayward, California, 1906; died 1999
Practiced at Creative Growth 1979-1999

Dwight Mackintosh began making artwork late in life, after spending over fifty-five years in institutions (interned at age 16). Upon his release at age 72, Mackintosh came to Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland and began a body of work that would make him a giant in the Outsider art world. Rendered in distinctive, kinetic linework, Mackintosh’s subject matter reflects his experiences, through events and objects, during a life of institutionalization. His drawings of orderly lines of boys, sometimes with genitalia exposed, buses that are empty or full, self-portraits of his own tonsillectomy: the work is characterized by repetitive flowing text and "x-ray" views of loosely drawn, yet tightly composed figures. This looping text is often illegible to the viewer, but is so essential to Mackintosh’s expression that it is sometimes the only visual element on the page. Mackintosh worked in the Creative Growth Studio until his death in 1999. 

Identified by the well-known art historian John MacGregor as a great American Outsider Artist, Mackintosh's work has been exhibited internationally, including a retrospective exhibition at the Collection d’Art Brut in Lausanne, Fraenkel Gallery, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Rena Bransten Gallery, and the Berkeley Art Museum. He is part of the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Madmusée in Liège, and the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne.

MacGregor describes the power of Mackintosh’s drawings: “They represent the externalization of the artist’s internal reality. The consistent pictorial language in which the images are embodied is exclusively the product of internal necessity and of obsessive need to fill the blankness of paper with personal markings.”

Dwight Mackintosh comenzó a hacer obras de arte tarde en la vida, después de pasar más de cincuenta y cinco años en instituciones (internado a los 16 años). Tras su liberación a los 72 años, Mackintosh llegó al Creative Growth Art Center en Oakland y comenzó un cuerpo de trabajo que lo convertiría en un gigante en el mundo del arte Forastera. Presentado en una línea cinética distintiva, el tema de Mackintosh refleja sus experiencias, a través de eventos y objetos, durante una vida de institucionalización. Sus dibujos de filas ordenadas de niños, a veces con los genitales expuestos, autobuses vacíos o llenos, autorretratos de su propia amigdalectomía: el trabajo se caracteriza por un texto fluido repetitivo y vistas de "rayos X" de dibujos vagamente dibujados, pero figuras muy bien compuestas. Este texto en bucle a menudo es ilegible para el espectador, pero es tan esencial para la expresión de Mackintosh que a veces es el único elemento visual de la página. Mackintosh trabajó en Creative Growth Studio hasta su muerte en 1999.

Identificado por el conocido historiador del arte John MacGregor como un gran Artista Marginal Estadounidense, el trabajo de Mackintosh se ha exhibido internacionalmente, incluyendo una exposición retrospectiva en la Colección d’Art Brut de Lausana, la Galería Fraenkel, la empresa de Gavin Brown, la Galería Rena Bransten y el Museo de Arte de Berkeley. Forma parte de la colección permanente del Centre Pompidou, el Museo Estudio de Harlem, el Museo de Arte Folklórica Americana de Nueva York, el Madmusée de Lieja y la Colección de l’Art Brut de Lausana.

MacGregor describe el poder de los dibujos de Mackintosh: “Representan la exteriorización de la realidad interna del artista. El lenguaje pictórico consistente en el que se plasman las imágenes es exclusivamente producto de la necesidad interna y de la necesidad obsesiva de llenar el espacio en blanco del papel con marcas personales”.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022
Gesture of Lines, Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery, Tokyo

2020
Art Paris, online exhibition, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, Paris

2019
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
Freize Art Fair, New York, curated by Javier Tellez
CE x CG x NIAD, Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco

2018
Outsider Art Fair, Paris

2016
Duvel Moortgat Fund, Madmusée, Liège, Belgium
American Dream, Direct Art Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany
Outside, Karma, Amagansett, New York, curated by Matthew Higgs
Nothing Compares to You, Riverview School, Cape Cod
Art Osaka, Osaka
Art Fair Tokyo, Tokyo
Wild Style: Exhibition of Figurative Art, Peres Projects, Berlin
D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York

2015
dRAW, Intuit Museum, Chicago, curated by Jan Petry
New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, Miami
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
Galerie Miyawaki, Kyoto
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, curated by Katy Grannan
Vis-à-vis, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, curated by Michael Mahalchick
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Art Fair Tokyo, Tokyo

2014
Mental Contours III. – Lines of Force, Artinbox Gallery, Prague
Drawing Now Art Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York

2013
The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, Hayward Touring, London, curated by Mark Leckey
Creative Growth Group Show, ParkLife Gallery, San Francisco
Drawing Now Art Fair, Paris
Creative Growth, Galerie Art Cru, Berlin
Almost Home, Diego Rivera Gallery (SFAI), San Francisco
Vehicles, Collection De L’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
Outsider Art Fair, Paris
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Outsider Artists, Oakland Museum of California at the Oakland International Airport, curated by Philip Linhares

2012
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Independent Art Fair, New York
Imagetexte 2, Topographie de L'Art, Paris
Sexi-Blatt, Galerie Gugging, Gugging, Austria
Frieze Art Fair, New York
Drawing Now Art Fair, Paris
Creative Growth, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, curated by Amie Scally
Inside Out, Galleri NordNorge, Harstad, Norway
John Hiltunen +1, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, curated by Matthew Higgs
New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, Miami

2011
Manhattan House, New York
Faces, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco
Create, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley
After Shelley Duvall ’72 (Frogs on the High Line), Maccarone Gallery, New York
Insider/Outsider Art: Selections from Bay Area Collections, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek
New Art Dealers Alliance Fair, Miami

2010
Georg Jensen, New York
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Galerie Impaire, Paris
In The House, MadMusée, Belgium

2009
Revealing the Human, Arts Project, Melbourne
Outsider Art Fair, New York
Chromatic: 35 Colorful Years of Creative Growth, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco

2008
Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, Chicago

2007
ABCD, Paris
Gensler Architecture, San Francisco

1998
Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee

1997
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York

1996
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York

1993
Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
Sailor’s Valentine Gallery, Nantucket
L’Aracine Musee d’Art Brut, France
Ames Gallery of American Folk Art
The Boy Who Time Forgot (Retrospective), Collection De L’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland and Ricco| Maresca Gallery, New York (traveling exhibition 1992-1993)

1990
The Art Store Gallery, San Francisco
McKesson Plaza, San Francisco
Primal Portraits: Adam and Eve as Seen by Self-Taught 20th Century Artists, Craft and Folk Museum, San Francisco

1986
Sun Gallery, Hayward

1985
Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael

1984
Euphrat Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino

1983
Joseph Chowning Gallery, San Francisco