Dwight Mackintosh
"Untitled", 1993
Ink on paper
22 x 30 inches (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Courtesy of Creative Growth

Selected by Marty Eisenberg

Born in Hayward, California,1906; died 1999

Practiced at Creative Growth 1979-1999

Dwight Mackintosh began making artwork late in life, after spending over fifty-five years in institutions (interned at age 16). Upon his release at age 72, Mackintosh came to Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland and began a body of work that would make him a giant in the Outsider art world. Rendered in distinctive, kinetic line work, Mackintosh’s subject matter reflects his experiences, through events and objects, during a life of institutionalization. His drawings of orderly lines of boys, sometimes with genitalia exposed, buses that are empty or full, self-portraits of his own tonsillectomy: the work is characterized by repetitive flowing text and "x-ray" views of loosely drawn,yet tightly composed figures. This looping text is often illegible to the viewer, but is so essential to Mackintosh’s expression that it is sometimes the only visual element on the page. Mackintosh worked in the Creative Growth Studio until his death in 1999.

Identified by the well-known art historian John MacGregor as a great American Outsider Artist, Mackintosh's work has been exhibited internationally, including retrospective exhibition at the Collection d’Art Brut in Lausanne, Fraenkel Gallery, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Rena Bransten Gallery, and the Berkeley Art Museum. He is part of the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Madmuséein Liège, and the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne.