Judith Scott
Encyclopedia
Judith Scott was an internationally renowned American fiber art
ist. She was a fraternal twin to Joyce Scott, and she was born profoundly deaf, mute, and with Down syndrome
. She worked at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California
.
The records from Judith Scott's first few years at the Institution indicate that she had an IQ of 30 (based upon oral testing before her deafness was recognised). For this reason she was denied any training opportunities. Deprived of her twin, Judith became severely alienated, and behavioral problems soon surfaced. Her Clinical Record states that "She does not seem to be in good contact with her environment. She does not get along well with other children, is restless, eats messily, tears her clothing, and beats other children. Her presence on the ward is a disturbing influence".
In 1985, Joyce Scott became her sister’s legal guardian. Judith moved to California, a state where all mentally retarded citizens are entitled to an ongoing education.
Some months later Judith casually observed a fiber art
class conducted by visiting artist Sylvia Seventy, and using the materials to hand, spontaneously invented her own unique and radically different form of artistic expression. While other students were stitching, she was sculpting with an unprecedented zeal and concentration.
Her special creativity was quickly recognised, and she was given complete freedom to choose her own materials. Taking found objects (often stealing them from other people at the Center) she would wrap them in carefully selected colored yarns to create diverse sculptures in many different shapes. Some resemble cocoons or body parts, while others are elongated totemic poles. Many of her works also feature pairs; Scott's experience as a twin is essential to her work.
Scott's work became immensely popular in the world of outsider art, and her pieces sold for up to $15,000. Her art is held in the permanent collections of the following museums: Art Brut Connaissance & Diffusion Collection (Paris and Prague), Museum of American Folk Art (Manhattan, New York), Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
(Chicago, Illinois), L’Aracine Musee D’Art Brut (Paris, France), Musee D’Art Brut (Lausanne, Switzerland), and the American Visionary Art Museum
(Baltimore, Maryland).
Judith Scott died of natural causes at her sister's home in Dutch Flat, California, at the age of 61. She outlived her life expectancy at birth by almost fifty years.
, Hawkins Bolden and Ike Morgan.
Fiber art
Fiber art is a style of fine art which uses textiles such as fabric, yarn, and natural and synthetic fibers. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labour involved as part of its significance.-Fiber:...
ist. She was a fraternal twin to Joyce Scott, and she was born profoundly deaf, mute, and with Down syndrome
Down syndrome
Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...
. She worked at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
Upbringing
Judith Scott was born in Columbus, Ohio, and spent her first seven and a half years at home with her twin sister and older brothers. Although the developmental gap between the two girls was apparent, "the parents consciously sought to treat these youngest members of the family alike. They were often dressed identically, and they were encouraged to participate in every experience or event on equal terms".Education
When it was time for the girls to start attending school, Judith was found to be "ineducable," not even qualified for the class for children with learning disabilities. Her deafness unrecognised, she was thought to be profoundly retarded. Consequently, on medical advice, her parents placed Judith in the Columbus State Institution (formerly the Columbus State School) an institution for the mentally retarded, on October 18, 1950. This separation had a profound effect on both twins.The records from Judith Scott's first few years at the Institution indicate that she had an IQ of 30 (based upon oral testing before her deafness was recognised). For this reason she was denied any training opportunities. Deprived of her twin, Judith became severely alienated, and behavioral problems soon surfaced. Her Clinical Record states that "She does not seem to be in good contact with her environment. She does not get along well with other children, is restless, eats messily, tears her clothing, and beats other children. Her presence on the ward is a disturbing influence".
In 1985, Joyce Scott became her sister’s legal guardian. Judith moved to California, a state where all mentally retarded citizens are entitled to an ongoing education.
Art
On April 1, 1987, Judith Scott started going to the Creative Growth Art Center. In her first few months at the center, Judith was unexceptional with paint. She scribbled loops and circles, but her work contained no representational imagery, and she was so uninterested in creating it that her sister was considering ending her involvement with the program.Some months later Judith casually observed a fiber art
Fiber art
Fiber art is a style of fine art which uses textiles such as fabric, yarn, and natural and synthetic fibers. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labour involved as part of its significance.-Fiber:...
class conducted by visiting artist Sylvia Seventy, and using the materials to hand, spontaneously invented her own unique and radically different form of artistic expression. While other students were stitching, she was sculpting with an unprecedented zeal and concentration.
Her special creativity was quickly recognised, and she was given complete freedom to choose her own materials. Taking found objects (often stealing them from other people at the Center) she would wrap them in carefully selected colored yarns to create diverse sculptures in many different shapes. Some resemble cocoons or body parts, while others are elongated totemic poles. Many of her works also feature pairs; Scott's experience as a twin is essential to her work.
Scott's work became immensely popular in the world of outsider art, and her pieces sold for up to $15,000. Her art is held in the permanent collections of the following museums: Art Brut Connaissance & Diffusion Collection (Paris and Prague), Museum of American Folk Art (Manhattan, New York), Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of and appreciation for intuitive and outsider art through a program of education and exhibition. Since its founding in 1991, Intuit has emerged as an international...
(Chicago, Illinois), L’Aracine Musee D’Art Brut (Paris, France), Musee D’Art Brut (Lausanne, Switzerland), and the American Visionary Art Museum
American Visionary Art Museum
The American Visionary Art Museum is an art museum located in the Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore, Maryland and that specializes in the preservation and display of visionary art...
(Baltimore, Maryland).
Judith Scott died of natural causes at her sister's home in Dutch Flat, California, at the age of 61. She outlived her life expectancy at birth by almost fifty years.
Film
In 2006, San Francisco filmmaker Betsy Bayha released the 30 minute documentary Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott. In the same year, Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel released the feature length documentary ¿Qué tienes debajo del sombrero? (What's under your hat?) about Scott and Philippe Lespinasse released Les cocons magiques de Judith Scott, a documentary filmed a few weeks before Scott's death. In 2009, Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn produced the documentary Make that examined the lives and art-making techniques of Judith Scott and self-taught artists Royal RobertsonRoyal Robertson
Royal Robertson , also known as the self-proclaimed Prophet Royal Robertson, was an American artist.-Early life and marriage:...
, Hawkins Bolden and Ike Morgan.