Disabled, self-taught artist creates using found materials

The Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago presents “The Art Books of James Castle” through Dec. 21. The Center is located at 1104 S. Wabash Ave., second Floor. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more information call (312) 344-6630.
James Castle (born ca. 1900) overcame severe disabilities (reputedly deaf at birth and never learning to speak) to produce sophisticated artworks, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and artist books from everyday materials such as wrapping paper, postal forms, cardboard, yarn and twine, sticks, and ink made from stove soot and spit. This exhibition will highlight Castle’s art books, particularly his earliest known surviving artworks, the Icehouse Books, which Castle stored in the family icehouse that served as the artist’s studio, gallery, archive and refuge.
“The young man taught himself lettering, perspective, shading, composition, the effects of framing of images, all the while refusing to do farm chores and other menial duties,” says curator Tom Trusky. “For over sixty years, Castle devoted himself to making art.”