I'm wondering if Walter Inglis Anderson was in a similar funk when he signed himself into a mental hospital in 1940. What, you have not heard of this artist? Nor had I till last Tuesday when I asked Faith what was in store for the following day. She showed me some of his works that grace both her living room wall and in her bedroom. She also shared a book that was written about him with many of his still life paintings and thoughts from his journal. I was intrigued and couldn't wait to travel to Ocean Springs, Mississippi to his Museum the next day.
As you enter the museum, we immediately turned to the left and entered the Ocean Springs Community House. It was a bustle of activity...a group of young first graders were walking around with a guide learning about the art of Anderson. Faith and I followed along, easedropping on the conversation. Here, Anderson painted a series of murals that cover all the walls.
Anderson's multifaceted art can be broken down into three periods: the Ocean Springs Period (1929-1939); the Oldfields Period(1940-1947) and the "Horn Island Period" (1948-1965). During the first period, Walter worked with his brother Peter at the Shearwater Pottery. It was here he created extraordinary art pottery. He also produced many works in various media including oil paintings, drawings, furniture, textiles and murals.Walking through the gallery, Faith and I were immediately struck with the shear quantity of his work.
Of course I immediately discovered his vibrant blue herons.
Through Anderson's work it is immediately apparent that he had a true relationship with the natural world. Through this connection, we, the viewer, can feel the magic of nature and also gain a deeper understanding of our own visions of nature.
During the second phase, the "Oldfields Period", Anderson moved with his wife to the plantation home of his father-in-law in Gautier, Mississippi. During this period, Anderson was most productive and produced some of his best work. Freed from his work at the Pottery, Anderson had time to draw, paint and make block prints. Using surplus linoleum and wallpaper, he made huge linoleon blocks depicting the natural world and that of fairy tales. Some of these were 30' in length, the largest art prints ever produced by an American. When they were exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in 1949, Una E. Johnson, the Museum's curator of prints, said that she had "never seen block prints so finely executed and of such great dimension."
Leaving the galleries, we felt priveleged to enter Anderson's Shearwater cottage....a cottage that remained locked to outsiders during Anderson's lifetime. It was here, in solitude, he created the life around him...birds, sea creatures, animals, trees, landscapes - in radiant watercolors.
The walls....
The ceiling:
It was during this latter period that Anderson embarked on a most private and solitary existence....living alone in the cottage and then increasing his visits out to Horn Island, one of a group of barrier islands off the Gulf Coast. Rowing the 12 miles out to the island in a small skiff, Anderson would carry only the minimal necessities and of course his art supplies.
I looked with wonder at the small skiff and thought, "Better he then I, traversing 12 miles of open sea in that!" But it is during this time, The Horn Island Period" that Anderson created his most mature work. Spending most of his time among the sand dunes, pine forests and lagoons of this twelve-mile long barrier island, Anderson created beautiful watercolors of the island's flora and fauna. It is during this period, he completed his "personal transformation from an observer of nature, to that of a true participant".
Leaving the Museum, Faith said she had one more treat to show me before heading off to lunch at her favorite Greek restaurant in Ocean Springs....Shearwater Pottery. Today, children and grandchildren, many of them artists themselves, keep the family business going. I must admit, Faith and I looked with our eyes and not our pocketbooks, when we got there. But we did play a game....if we had all the money in the world, which piece would we select to take home with us?
Faith chose this little bowl:
And I chose this beautiful plate.
Though neither of us could afford to buy our favorite piece, at the Museum store, Faith did purchase the following print....for now it's just hanging above her computer station unframed....though I imagine in time, if not already, it's framed.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 72
I appreciate your detailed tribute to an American artist of whom I had not known. I'm certain I might enjoy this artistic diversion the next time I drive over to New Orleans. The block prints seem especially compelling.
This was very interesting. This is the kind of art that really trips my trigger. I'm going to look into him further.
I hope you feel better soon, bob. We miss you around here.
(and ACK, the last picture is of my home office!)
Your article is Featured in the Triple Name Club and in Wednesday Writing Essentials.
"From 1938 to 1940 Walter Anderson was in and out of mental hospitals, including the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, Sheppard Pratt, and the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. At Phipps, where he spent 18 months, treated attentively by Adolf Meyer and a team of psychiatrists, he was diagnosed with severe depression with paranoid trends and schizophrenic ("parergasic") features. Despite brief periods of psychosis and brief hospitalization in the 1950s, he led a life more productive than most, and a final diagnosis eluded physicians, although psychiatrist Paul Rodenhauser, who writes about Walter Anderson's creativity in relation to his mental illness, ventures a possible posthumous diagnosis: "schizo-affective disorder, bipolar type" (see "Alternative Reality and Art: The Creative World of Walter Inglis Anderson," available through Project Muse.) At Sheppard Pratt and later at Whitfield, Anderson was well enough to draw, read, and plot elaborate escapes. After eloping from Shepphard Pratt, he walked 1,000 miles from Baltimore to Ocean Springs. During one of several escapes from the Mississippi State Hospital, he lowered himself on bedsheets from a second-story window, leaving the brick walls festooned with drawings of birds in flight, done in Ivory soap."
Imagine what the nurses and doctors thought looking at the brick wall "festooned with drawings of birds in flight, done in ivory soap"!
Your not responsible. The thing with the collapsed ear drums happened on the flight back when the pilot, over NYC didn't adjust the pressure correctly in the cabin. Then the allergies are more from all the pollen in my New England Garden. Now I'm on antibiotics...and according to my doctor I'll be as good as new in a few days.
As for Anderson...like you, I have become a follower. I can't wait to use my Border gift cards to purchase his log book.
You need to show us your collages. Take some photos and write an article...I for one would love to see them.
Faith and I were laughing at lunch that day how we are attracted to "weird" folks who are quite out of the ordinary...and guess what? You fit in that category!
Thank you for featuring it in both Triple Name Club and Wednesday's Writing Essential.
Actually Lena came over yesterday bearing gifts of chicken noodle soup, chamomile tea and some kind of wonderful homemade bread. She found me in pajamas that didn't match...obviously I didn't know I was going to have a visitor.
I'm actually feelin' better today...but after I finished this article I did go up and take another nap. Was I not surprised when I came back down to see the response.
I'm sorry you're in a funk. Maybe it's a spring thing. I'm struggling with my own, too. I hope that the rebirth pulls you out and along, and that you emerge from the other side revived and repurposed.
Still sneezing and coughing, but I do feel better today...I think I've only taken three naps today.
Have you had your toasted Vegemite sandwich yet? It is an Aussie secret cure all.
It really makes one wonder what his diagnosis would be today. Mental health is now considered to be in its' infancy. Back when he was being treated, it was still in the embryonic stage.
I love the birds and crabs and fish.
Airplanes literally make people sick...mostly when sick people are on the plane...all are breathing the same recycled air.
I am glad you have had some time to rest and ponder.
My sister and I spent hours reading the Spiegle cataloque when we were young and picking out one thing we wanted on each page...it was all about outfits so we must have been in our early teens and really into clothes.
May you recover to 100 percent by tomorrow!
Thanks for posting to All Photo Essays Here!
Oh yeah, and I hope you're feeling better soon!
Fran and I used to do the same thing with the Sears catalog. Isn't that strange!
Would you believe the plate I picked out was $750.00; Faith's vase was $350! Now that's a whole lot of moola!
Hope you are better by now. Stop thinking that "it" shares the same space with you, embrace " it" and tell it to leave you! ha!
How does this sound? try it and you shall see!
love and hugs
It was exciting to discover Anderson...like us...you and me...he just reveled in nature. Nature came first then his painting...sort of like us with our photography.
I have ordered his wife's book...when I'm through with it I will lend it to you. I'm really intrigued to figure out where she stood all these years.
I spent a couple of hours reading about him and his work just now on the internet. I'm so glad you introduced him to me. I love his work. Lucky you to have been there.
I hope you are feeling better now. I know exactly what it means to suffer exhaustion or a funk. I always take comfort in knowing it will pass.
I agree with the poster who said that you could see the changes from period to period. I wonder how his wife dealt with all of this.
I'll have to see what I can find on the net.
Get well soon, Elizabeth - we miss you.
This is a wonderful article - I love this art and love original artists so much - thanks for sharing this exhibition with us - you really covered lots of ground and I appreciate that! Salud.
Keep sending the healing thoughts. Yes, I kind of figured you would like this guy. Faith and I were talking about how we are attracted to people who have a "unique perspective" on their world...to be more specific, we are attracted to weird people...maybe that's because we are weird. Most definitely, you would have liked Walter Anderson. Hey, did you know his family called him "Bob".
Anderson did have definite styles. I like the work from the last period the best.
Thanks to Ann M. for directing me to this terrific photo essay of Anderson's work.
I have known his work for awhile and am a big fan. I saw a show of his work in New York at Luise Ross Gallery only a couple of months ago. Ms. Ross showed watercolors from the same period as the heron painting that you admired.
I seem to remember that he had some formal training? Am I right about that? For some reason I am associating him with schooling in Philadelphia? I could easily be mixing him up with someone else.
I didn't know about the cottage and it is fantastic! You did a great job of presenting this artist to us. It seems from the comment thread that you have turned on a bunch of folks to Walter Anderson's fine work.
Anderson received training first at the Parsons Institute of Design in New York and then at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. Due to the excellence of his work, he received the Cresson Award which provided a year's study in France where he became most impressed with the cave art at Les Eyzies. He returned from France in 1929 and married Agnus Grinstead, a Radcliffe graduate.
If you are interested I would love to have pieces like this to feature for my group Living Art
Thank you for sharing your visit and this remarkable talent with us!