Dwight Mackintosh (American, 1906 to 1999)
Dwight Mackintosh was committed to a mental institution at the age of 16 and released a lifetime later in a mass displacement at the age of 72. On his release he was encouraged to attend sessions at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California. Always introspective and limited in his verbal communication, he began to draw with great focus and concentration, paying attention to little else. He used felt-tipped pens and colored pencils on white paper, drawing sure lines that intertwine to form forceful compositions of figures, vehicles, buildings, and other recurring motifs. Lines of unintelligible writing, which he was never willing or able to translate, constitute another important element of Mackintosh’s drawings, floating over his images like unraveled yarn. Mackintosh’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in many private and public collections, including the Anthony Petullo collection, Milwaukee, MI; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; and the Collection de L’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Information Courtesy of Rago Arts, December, 2018.