Joseph Yoakum. What I Saw. Moma

 Another fantastic exhibition now on at The Museum Of Modern Art is the large Joseph Yoakum show of his amazing fantastical mostly landscape drawings. I have to add to this that I owned 2 of his drawings which sadly I had to sell to get rent money. My old friend Cynthia Carlson (who has loaded a drawing that she owns to the show) came back from Chicago where she met and bought a stack of his work. She offered me I recall 2 of them for very low prices and I loved them for years until as I said I had to sell them. Now On Moma's walls are a brilliant display of this self taught outsider artist. There are several stories of his life, all of which he brought forth, and who knows. What I do know is what he saw, and what I saw and this is a wonderful exhibition. As I said most of his work is of make believe landscapes that may be based on actual scenes, but it doesn't really matter. They are delicately colored with pencils and pastels along with pen and ink and they vibrant and move in many ways. Yoakum lived and worked for a short period in Chicago and that's where the artists of that place embraced him and bought lots of his drawings. When I owned the 2 he was not very well known, but he was always adored by us artists. That's usually the case with self taught and outsiders, the artists discover them before the establishment does. Its like real estate. We move into neighborhoods no one wants to live in, and then the hoards and the vandals come in, and take over the hoods. This happened to me in Chelsea where I lived from 1967 to I was displaced in 2001. Anyway enough of the history and more of Yoakum. He didn't make art for a very long time, maybe 10 years or so, beginning when he was 71 so take that to heart artists who are still not recognized, and I doubt he even cared about star power. He was a true original and for a short while I had a few of his drawings to myself. Now with this great show his work comes to us all, and grab this chance to see his wonderful work. The show will be on until March. Bravo Joseph.