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The Fortune Society – Insider Art: 2006
Auction Ends: Dec 17, 2006 05:00 PM EST

Abstract

'Soul (2006)' by Don Johnson

"Soul (2006)" by Don Johnson

Item Number
190
Sold
700 USD to Live Event Bidder
Number of Bids
6  -  Bid History

Live Event Item

After the online close, this item went to a Live Event for further bidding.

Item Description

3.5''x5.5''; M&M's

Item Special Note

Donald Johnson has been in solitary confinement in a small concrete cell for almost two decades. He paints with a brush he created wtih plastic wrap, foil and his own hair. He makes paint by extracting the colors from M&M's in little plastic containers that once held packets of grape jelly. His canvases are postcards.

Adolfo Caballero, who curated Mr. Johnson's exhibit in San Miguel de Allende, said of him: "he's not a prison artist; he's an artist in prison." Just as Louise Bourgeois, though a feminist in many respects, refuses to be labeled a "woman artist," Donny Johnson refuses to be called a "prisoner artist." Such categories as "prison artist," "woman artist," or "outsider artist" take people who are, to varying degrees, marginalized with respect to mainstream society and further marginalize them and their creative work through the application of such labels. That this sort of labeling conceals a prejudice that is revealed by the fact that artists not in prison are not labeled "free artists," artists who are men are not labeled "male artists" and so forth. An artist is an artist. He or she alone - not a curator, a critic, or an historian - should decide the category, if any, to which their work belongs.