WK

why he is an outsider

1) the mental illness
questions:
spec diagnosis
continued belief
medical or ?
2) the apoclyptica
sales of said work
how late was this done
the bomb shelter, and its commonness, in TO
3) the visonary strangeness
4) the prolifagacy
exact number of paintings, public commisions, prints, tapestries, drawings, et. al
5) ethnic concerns
not really a prarie painter, but his toronto work kind of looks like the beaches?
6) the naive or folk aesthetic
how much of this wasa signuture style, marketable, and not changed?
hos close is this to other, really naive painters, or folk painters in WC or the ukraine?
really quite sophiscated, in formal matters?
7) the use of work as religious or political agit prop or as anti aesthetic, even when it might be better to be politic
david crombie (but then they didnt notice for 10 years?)
is david crombie still alive?
are there other examples, other controversies that emereged about his public commissions?

why he is not an outsider
1) the connections to capital
but he always begged for money, though only one record of grant making
there was tussles about money, that letter in the isaacs collection about drawings for only 700...
and the bank statements, up to the 70s, he was sellign out shows
does capital matter, romance of poverty, etc
2) the placement of his work in promient collections, public spaces, et. al
(from the top of my head AGO, U of A, Winnipeg, Edmonton Galleries, London collections, the national gallery of canada, the collection of the queen mother, moma in ny (and the story of that, about hwo it was the only work being sold there), the thomson collection (the rock, basillian, 12k/a doesnt seem very much)
3) his manipulation of personae
rube, hand written letters, clumsy ukranian, anti semetic, et al
4) his abilty to manipulate the market, his savvy about that
did he do this?
5) the use of biographical narrative to frame himself as naive
see personae, it depends on how much of this was public personae, but the two books for tundra, and the immigrant (polish, uke, irish, jewish) series of prints
6) the connecting to a spec, mostly anglo/northern european (ie not ukranian) tradition of painting and print making
(ie blake, brueghel, bosch, et al--all mentioned in auto bio, etc)


how much of the stonewalling is my inability to be good at this shit, and how much is other general weirdness?