Born 1899 in Garden Valley, ID; died 1977 in Boise, ID.
Among the most emblematic American outsider artists, James Castle (b. 1899; d. 1977) never learned to speak, read, or write and refused to be taught to communicate in any of the accepted forms of signing or finger spelling. Castle's eloquent means of expressing what he felt about the world around him in rural Idaho was through drawings. These expressions consisted of works on paper that he produced for nearly 70 years until his death in 1977. Drawing with a sharpstick dipped into a mix of soot and his own spit, he conjured the people and places he knew well with consistent interpretive sophistication and integrity. His family home, now called the James Castle House, is an important historical landmark and museum with a highly regarded Artist-in-Residence program.
Castle’s art has is included in, among others, the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MA), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), The National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), The Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA), and The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY). He has been the subject of several solo exhibitions at galleries including David Zwirner (NY, 2022), Hirschl and Adler (NY, 2021), Adams and Ollman (OR, 2018), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C., 2014), and was included in the seminal 2013 Venice Biennale exposition The Encyclopedic Palace.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
James Castle, David Zwirner, New York, NY
2021
Seeing James Castle, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, NY
2019
Viewshed: Impressions of Place, The James Castle House, Boise, ID
2018
The James Castle Primer, James Castle Collection and Archive, Boise, ID
James Castle, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
James Castle: People, Places and Things, New York Studio School, New York, NY
2016
James Castle Landscapes, Lawrence Markey Gallery, San Antonio, TX
James Castle: The Experience of Every Day, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN
2015
James Castle, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
James Castle: Ask and Learn, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, WY
2014
Untitled: The Art of James Castle, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
2013
The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Constructing James Castle, curated by Brenda Brueggemann, Urban Arts Space, Columbus, OH
2011
James Castle: Show and Store, Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
2010
James Castle: A Retrospective, Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, CA
2008
James Castle: A Retrospective, curated by Ann Percy, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2006
Inner Worlds Outside, traveling exhibition, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundacíon "La Caixa." Madrid, Spain; WhiteChapel Gallery, London, UK; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
James Castle/Walker Evans: Word Play, Signs, and Symbols, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY
Silent Satire: The Political Cartoon Appropriations of James Castle, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2005
One Man's Vocabulary, Muse Gallery, Jackson, WY
James Castle: Drawings, Constructions, and Books, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
2002
James Castle: Structures, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY
James Castle: Works on Paper, Galerie Bernd Kluser, Munich, Germany
2001
James Castle, James Mayor Gallery, London, UK
James Castle: Drawings and Works on Paper, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
2000
James Castle, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
James Castle: The Common Place, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY
An Individual Approach: The Art of James Castle, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
James Castle: House Drawings, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
A Room of His Own, J Crist Gallery, Boise, ID
Reputedly Illiterate: The Art Books of James Castle, American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York, NY
1998
A Silent Voice: Drawings of Constructions of James Castle, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1997
Images in a Silent World: The Art of James Castle, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
1996
James Castle, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
An Amazing Luminous Fountain: The Work of James Castle, J Crist Gallery, Boise, ID
James Castle, Idaho Center for the Book, Boise State University, Boise, ID
1994
James Castle, Albertson College, Caldwell, ID
1989
Works by James Castle, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
1984
James Castle Retrospective: A Voice of Silence, traveling exhibition University of Arizona, Tempe, AZ; Paris Gibson Square Gallery, Great Falls, MT; and MSU Fine Arts Gallery, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
1983
James Castle Retrospective: A Voice of Silence, Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum, Spokane, WA
1982
James Castle Retrospective: A Voice of Silence, Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, ID
1981
James Castle: A Primitive Artist, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
James Castle, Visual Arts Center, Anchorage, AK
1980
A World Without Words, Los Tres Gallery, Longview, WA
1976
James Castle's Drawings, Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, ID
1974
James Castle, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA
1967
James Castle, The Gallery, Seattle, WA
1965
A Voice of Silence: Drawings by James Castle, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1963
James Castle, Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, ID
1962
A Voice of Silence: Drawings of James Castle, Image Gallery, Portland, OR
James Castle, Bush Barn, Salem Art, Salem, OR
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Unaccompanied Conversations, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
2021
Super-Rough, guest curated by Takashi Murakami, Outsider Art Fair special exhibition, New York, NY
2020
The Window: A Journey of Art and Architecture through Windows, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, JP
2019
Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
The Window: A Journey of Art and Architecture through Windows, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Really, Sequences IX Biennial, Reykjavík, Iceland
The Art of Collage, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Louder than Words, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA
2018
Outliers and American Vanguard Art, traveling exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2017
Where We Are: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection 1900-1960, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
A Limitless Vision: The Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, Sara Kay Galleries, New York, NY
2016
World Made By Hand, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Architecture of Life, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
A Being in the World, Salon 94, New York, NY
Measurably Long Kool, Fleisher-Ollman, Philadelphia, PA
Inside the Outside: Five Self-Taught Artists from the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum, traveling exhibition curated by Melissa Wolfe, New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; and Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
Outside, Karma Gallery, New York, NY
2015
America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2013
Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Sheldon and Jill Bonovitz Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2012
Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos, traveling exhibition, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2011
Modern Lab: The Found Alphabet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2010
Until Now, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
La Collection de Christian Zacharias: La Maison et L’infini, Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland
2009
Drawings Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Messages & Magic: 100 Years of Collage and Assemblage in American Art, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2008
Communication Breakdown, traveling exhibition, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY and Galerie Impaire, Paris, France
Notation, traveling exhibition, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany and Zentrum Fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
Glossolalia: Languages of Drawing, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2006
Rock Paper Scissors: American Collage Now, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Exceptional American Folk and Self-Taught Art, Keny Galleries, Columbus, OH
2005
Looking at Words, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
scope~Miami, Karen Lennox Gallery, Chicago, IL
150 Works of Art, No Walls, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
2004
Fabulous Histories: Indigenous Anomalies in American Art, traveling exhibition curated by Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and Art 36, Basel, Switzerland
American Art Brut, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY
Summer Group Show, PDX, Portland, OR
2003
American Cutout, New York Studio School, New York, NY
Fifty Years, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Turning Corners, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2002
Gifts in Honor of the 125th Anniversary, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Art Books of James Castle, Center for Book & Paper Arts, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Fast Forward II, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
American Vernacular, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY
Reputedly Illiterate: The Art Books of James Castle, Library at the Faculty of Art, Media, and Design, University of West England, Bristol, UK
New Year/New Work, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery at John McEnroe Gallery, New York, NY
American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2001
Rear Vision: The First Ten Years, Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
New Year/New Work/New York, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery at John McEnroe Gallery, New York, NY
2000
Making Choices: The Raw and the Cooked, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
When Reason Dreams, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
New Century, New Venue, New York, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery at John McEnroe Gallery, New York, NY
1999
We Are Not Alone: Angels and Other Aliens, American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
1998
Home: Places and Spaces, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
1996
Memories and Visions: Self-Taught and Outsider Artists West of the Rockies, traveling exhibition, Sheppard Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno and Center for Contemporary Art, Las Vegas, NV
1990
One Hundred Years of Idaho Art: 1850 – 1950, Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
1987
Out of the Mainstream: Visionary and Independent Artists of the Northwest, Missoula Museum of Art, Missoula, MT
1974
Private Purpose, Fine Arts Gallery, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
1970
Symbols and Images: Contemporary Primitive Artists, traveling exhibition circulated by the American Federation of Arts, NY
1963
The Innocent Eye, Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT
SELECTED FILMS
2008
Wolf, Jeffrey, James Castle: Portrait of an Artist, Philadelphia: Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2018
Cooke, Lynne. Outliers and American Vanguard Art. Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art.
2014
Bell, Nicholas R. and Leslie Umberger. Untitled: The Art of James Castle. London: Smithsonian American Art Museum in association with D Giles Limited.
2013
Giono, Massimiliano and Natalie Bell. The Encyclopedic Palace. Venice: Fondazione La Biennale Di Venezia.
2011
Cooke, Lynne, Briony Fer and Zeo Leonard. James Castle: Show and Store. New York: Distributed Art Publishers.
2008
Percy, Ann. James Castle: A Retrospective. New Haven: Yale University Press.
SELECTED ARTICLES
2018
Daley, Jason. “Eleven Never-Before-Seen Artworks Found in the Walls of James Castle’s House.” Smithsonian.com, April 20.
Smith, Roberta. “A groundbreaking show presents a new, inclusive vision of American art.” New York Times, February 16.
Goodman, Jonathan. “James Castle: People Places and Things.” The Brooklyn Rail, February 7.
2017
Collins-Hughes, Laura. “Inventing out of necessity.” New York Times, June 7.
Smith, Roberta. “The call of the wildest.” New York Times, January 20.
2015
Gold, Sarah. “‘Outsider art’ under one roof at Katonah Museum of Art.” New York Times, August 13.
Meier, Allison. “Self-Taught Artist James Castle’s Home Will Become a Cultural Center.” Hyperallergic, July 15.
2014
Frank, Priscilla. “Why outsider artist James Castle is so hard to categorize.” Huffington Post, December 8.
Geiling, Natasha. “A World of His Own: The Art of James Castle." Smithsonian Magazine, 17 October.
Tarrish, Laura. “Hunter/Gatherer: James Castle.” Design Observer Group, September.
Smith, Roberta. “Clothes inspired on demand.” New York Times, January 19.
2013
Cotter, Holland. “Beyond the ‘Palace,’ and international tour on one city.” New York Times, June 5.
2012
Smith, Roberta. “Connecting Kindred Spirits.” New York Times, October 26.
2010
Anderson, Brooke Davis and Edward M. Gomez. “Outsiderism: A discourse on self-taught art.” Art in America, April.
DeCarlo, Tessa. “James Castle: A Retrospective.” Brooklyn Rail, April.
2009
“James Castle: A Retrospective.” Best of 2009. Artforum, December.
Higgs, Matthew. “James Castle: A Retrospective.” Artforum, December.
Smith, Roberta. “Recreating a world, in soot, paper and string.” New York Times, March 27.
2008
Sozanski, Edward J. “From isolation, creativity.” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2.
2006
Smith, Roberta. “Red, white and blue americana atop a cultural rainbow.” New York Times, January 20.
2004
Anderson, Brooke Davis. “James Castle.” Raw Vision, Vol. 46, Spring.
2003
Glueck, Grace. "James Castle: Structures." New York Times, January 10.
2002
Brandabur, Susan. “James Castle.” Art & Auction, February.
Gomez, Edward. “James Castle.” Raw Vision, Vol. 41, Winter.
2001
Westfall, Stephen. “Touched into Being.” Art in America, vol. 89.
2000
Saltz, Jerry. “Home Alone.” Village Voice, Vol. 45, April 26.
Schwendenser, Martha. “James Castle.” Time Out New York, May 2.
1999
Trusky, Tom. “Found and Profound: The Art of James Castle.” Folk Art, vol. 24, Winter.
1998
Trusky, Tom. “James Castle and the Burden of Art.” Raw Vision, Vol. 23, Summer.
1970
Blasdel, Gregg Nixon. “Symbols and Images: Contemporary Primitive Artists." American Federation of Arts.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, OR
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Portland Art Museum/The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, Portland, OR
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation