Jericho Sadorra

Artist Lecture Critique #1

Leslie Umberger
Davidson Math and Science Center Room 110
PowerPoint presentation on 'Shifting the Mainstream Narrative in American Art Five Self-taught
Artists Who Made a Difference'
10/15/15 @ 5:30PM
Leslie Umberger, through a PowerPoint presentation that touched on several artists who
never went through a formal artistic education, but instead taught themselves. She stresses the
fact that they're "organic" and that they "reinvent culture and America itself." Leslie tried to
persuade the audience that these artists shifted the mainstream narrative by the use of rhetoric in
order to tell the life story of these artists and showing pictures of these artists making their work.
Her first example was an artists who had the nickname "El Italiano" who was proclaimed to be
an engineering genius in which he created the first earthquake proof building and the person who
built the largest structure by himself. This explanation of his work certainly took a hit on me-- he
was bullied, a creative, bullied by his neighbors in fear that the towers he built were spy towers
for the Germans during World War II. He abandoned his project and this instigated the city of
Los Angeles to issue destruction of his work. Despite the city wanting to take down the three
towering steel towers, grassroot efforts stopped the destruction with the argument that "no one
should be able to take down art." No one should ever be able to mute an artist-- and to be bullied
out of your project, to be harassed and taken away from your work is the most offensive thing
you can do to an artist. Umberger certainly invoked and delivered the message there: Art then
wasn't respected compared to now. David Butler liked to be surrounded by pretty things and
liked to be busy. His work used motion and surprise, which he thought that it warded out evil
spirits. All his work contained biblical aspects. He suffered from nervousness and built his art to
keep him safe. Again, Umberger uses rhetoric to tell his story and make the audience feel pity for
him. Because Butler was African American, whites took his work to the point where Butler was
depressed and he never recovered. Umberger uses his story I order to again underline the lack of
respect people have for art, and even more the lack of respect people have for the artist. People
just walk over artists, and I agree with that- the message Umberger delivers. Her presentation
moves on to Emery Blagdon who lived most of his life in the rugged west. He was a free spirit
and the embodiment of western ruggedness. His work, The Healing Machine, was an
experimental space was place of solace that he built in order to relieve arthritis pain that ran
rampant in his family. The room was literally electrifying, and his methods were very
misunderstood by the public. This story delivered by Umberger underlined the misunderstanding
of an artist's work. While people can view art as a form of art- something to look at, works can
do something deeper. Blagdon made The Healing Room in order to treat and help his parents
which suffered from immense disease-related pain-- and when he died, his pieces were only
auctioned off as "scraps." This infuriated me; who do people think they are? This was profoundly
annoying on a different level. I never knew people were so ignorant to pieces of art- to how
people don't respect enough, or even try to understand something that looked completely
different to usual "art." James Hampton made tinfoil art that portrayed Hampton's visions of the
third heaven. These works were ahead of his time, and in due time, these works were displayed
at the Smithsonian. This is a centerfold of her presentation because this is the first time an artist
who was self taught received recognition from an institution as big as the Smithsonian. This

showed me that through time, people can come to understand-- however slow, people will come
to understand art. Lonnie Holley explored identity and explored a harsh world. Holley's works
are active, "a memory given form," and "maps his existence to others." Through his metaphors,
his art, he delivered messages that were logical-- something different from the other artists.
Umberger and Holley have the same mission: make people understand. Despite having his work
destroyed, destroyed, and destroyed again, he kept rebuilding. Holley made art to protect art and
through this, he gained traction in the artistic world. He wanted to make people understand, and
if that isn't enough- having an artist to never cease to give up. This presentation shown a light to
America's culture-- how a consumer nation can easily put down an artist. Umberger uses Holley's
story as a tool to impact our daily reality. She makes us remember that we live in a socially
stratified world and that society ignores its perils at other's costs. I definitely agree. This lecture
certainly opened my eyes to the world we live in and how the world views art- and how it treats
it. No matter the artist, art is art. It deserves a respect that is limitless. Art isn't contemporary- it's
a living, breathing thing that we as a society have to adapt to understand, but people are scared to
understand the unknown, so progress is slow. We as a people are only beginning to understand
some art that was made only fifty, sixty years ago.