Outsider Art

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, How Are You (1983) album cover to the MTV Video Music Awards. Johnston’s art was inextricably connected to his music, and his pen and marker drawings of superheroes and anthropomorphized animals were critical to his cult appeal among music fans and art aficionados alike. Johnston lived with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which contributed to his work’s on-and-off categorization as outsider art; his visionary world...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, How Are You (1983) album cover to the MTV Video Music Awards. Johnston’s art was inextricably connected to his music, and his pen and marker drawings of superheroes and anthropomorphized animals were critical to his cult appeal among music fans and art aficionados alike. Johnston lived with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which contributed to his work’s on-and-off categorization as outsider art; his visionary world...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, How Are You (1983) album cover to the MTV Video Music Awards. Johnston’s art was inextricably connected to his music, and his pen and marker drawings of superheroes and anthropomorphized animals were critical to his cult appeal among music fans and art aficionados alike. Johnston lived with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which contributed to his work’s on-and-off categorization as outsider art; his visionary world...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, How Are You (1983) album cover to the MTV Video Music Awards. Johnston’s art was inextricably connected to his music, and his pen and marker drawings of superheroes and anthropomorphized animals were critical to his cult appeal among music fans and art aficionados alike. Johnston lived with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which contributed to his work’s on-and-off categorization as outsider art; his visionary world...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

Daniel Johnston was a prolific visual artist and musician. He gained a cult following in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain wore a T-shirt with the artist’s frog illustration from his Hi, Ho...

India ink

Ross Bonfanti Butterfly, 2015 Concrete, mixed media 10 x 16 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches (25.4 x 41.3 x 6.4 cm)

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez writes of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painti...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez writes of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (The Living Arts, June 13, 2000, p. B2) Valton Tyler was born in 1944 in Texas, where "the industrial world of oil refineries made a long-lasting impression on Valton as a very young child living in Texas City." (Reynolds, p. 25) After leaving Texas City, Valton made his way to Dallas, where he briefly enrolled at the Dallas Art Institute, but found it to be too social and commercial for his taste. After Valton's work was introduced to Donald Vogel (founder of Valley House Gallery), "Vogel arranged for Tyler to use the printmaking facilities in the art department of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the young artist essentially taught himself several demanding printmaking techniques. 'It was remarkable,' Vogel says. 'Not only did he learn complicated etching methods, but he was able to express himself powerfully in whatever medium he explored.' Vogel became the publisher of Tyler's prints. Among them, the artist made editions of some 50 different images whose sometimes stringy abstract forms and more solid, architecturally arresting elements became the precursors of his later, mature style." (Gomez, Raw Vision #35, p. 36) "Eagle’s Nest" is Plate Number 37, and is reproduced in "The First Fifty Prints: Valton Tyler" with text by Rebecca Reynolds, published for Valley House Gallery by Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, Texas, 1972. In "The First Fifty Prints," Reynolds provides the following quote from the artist regarding this print: “The structure on the right is an architectural symbol for an eagle. It is also like a machine that is igniting the shape on the left. Below, the egg that is coming out of the chute is a child which will evolve into another architectural eagle...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez writes of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painti...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez writes of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined painti...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (The Living Arts, June 13, 2000, p. B2) Valton Tyler was born in 1944 in Texas, where "the industrial world of oil refineries made a long-lasting impression on Valton as a very young child living in Texas City. He was three years old when the terrible explosion occurred there and can remember the terrifying confusion and 'the beautiful red sky and objects flying everywhere in the air.'" (Reynolds, p. 25) While growing up in Texas City, Valton's father worked in auto repair, and was known for his skill in mixing colors for paint jobs. After leaving Texas City, Valton made his way to Dallas, where he briefly enrolled at the Dallas Art Institute, but found it to be too social and commercial for his taste. After Valton's work was introduced to Donald Vogel (founder of Valley House Gallery), "Vogel arranged for Tyler to use the printmaking facilities in the art department of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the young artist essentially taught himself several demanding printmaking techniques. 'It was remarkable,' Vogel says. 'Not only did he learn complicated etching methods, but he was able to express himself powerfully in whatever medium he explored.' Vogel became the publisher of Tyler's prints. Among them, the artist made editions of some 50 different images whose sometimes stringy abstract forms and more solid, architecturally arresting elements became the precursors of his later, mature style." (Gomez, Raw Vision #35, p. 36) “Height...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (The Living Arts, June 13, 2000, p. B2) Valton Tyler was born in 1944 in Texas, where "the industrial world of oil refineries made a long-lasting impression on Valton as a very young child living in Texas City. He was three years old when the terrible explosion occurred there and can remember the terrifying confusion and 'the beautiful red sky and objects flying everywhere in the air.'" (Reynolds, p. 25) While growing up in Texas City, Valton's father worked in auto repair, and was known for his skill in mixing colors for paint jobs. After leaving Texas City, Valton made his way to Dallas, where he briefly enrolled at the Dallas Art Institute, but found it to be too social and commercial for his taste. After Valton's work was introduced to Donald Vogel (founder of Valley House Gallery), "Vogel arranged for Tyler to use the printmaking facilities in the art department of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the young artist essentially taught himself several demanding printmaking techniques. 'It was remarkable,' Vogel says. 'Not only did he learn complicated etching methods, but he was able to express himself powerfully in whatever medium he explored.' Vogel became the publisher of Tyler's prints. Among them, the artist made editions of some 50 different images whose sometimes stringy abstract forms and more solid, architecturally arresting elements became the precursors of his later, mature style." (Gomez, Raw Vision #35, p. 36) “World of Watermelons” is plate number 19, and is reproduced in "The First Fifty Prints: Valton Tyler" with text by Rebecca Reynolds, published for Valley House Gallery by Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, Texas, 1972. Of “World of Watermelons”, Tyler said “The title here does not represent my own associations with this print. Friends simply began referring to it as ‘the watermelon print...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...