Misappropriations of Outsider Art: An Anti Ableist Re-framing of Self-Taught Artist, James Castle.

20th Century self-taught/outsider artist James Castle (1899-1977) born profoundly deaf in Garden Valley, Idaho, attended Gooding School for the Deaf from 1910-1915. Much later, appreciation of Castle increased in response to retrospective exhibitions and documentaries facilitating recognition and international collection. Related holdings at Smithsonian American Art Museum, and National Gallery of Art have yielded curatorial writings describing artists “othered” lives and artworks—but refrain from critically addressing artwork, popularity, and their institutions’ agendas. Likewise, little critical writing questioning ableist assumptions and narratives exist. This research examines and actively challenges the socio-cultural and institutional ways that ableist discrimination and likewise misappropriation impacts the inquiry and presentation of outsider and self-taught artists utilizing James Castle as a case study.

Additional objectives are to:

• share the evolution of the role of art within early deaf education
• present historical research and analysis proposing more accurate descriptions of Castle’s experience at the Gooding School for the Deaf and Blind
• offer anti ableist theories about the originations, history, and cultural context of Castle’s life and artmaking as well as his signing, writing, and reading abilities
• question Castle’s categorization as a self-taught artist based on an underestimation of deaf education, and Castle as a deaf person
• posit Castle did indeed use sign language, was not illiterate, and received some level of art education
• highlight educational, historical, and socio-cultural significance of forgotten, erased and partial tales.

Recognizing marginalized deaf art pedagogies this work distills what can be learned and taught toward the betterment of related social justice concerns.