EIJIRO MIYAMA (1934, JAPAN) Eijiro Miyama is often referred to as Bōshi Ojisan (“Hat Man”) due to his habit of riding his bicycle around the streets of Yokohama wearing eccentric clothing and large, elaborate hats adorned with dolls and other recycled objects. He was born in Mie Prefecture, Japan. A loner, he never married. He […]
MARIE-ROSE LORTET
MARIE-ROSE LORTET (1945, FRANCE) Marie-Rose Lortet, originally from Strasbourg, began knitting at an early age, inspired by the tradition which ran throughout the female members of her family. Creating small fabric pictures and textile pieces, her knit work was never of a conventional nature. In 1967, with the attention and encouragement of Jean Dubuffet, Lortet’s […]
PASCAL TASSINI
PASCAL TASSINI 1955-| BELGIUM Pascal Tassini was born in Belgium in 1955 in a family of three children. He lived with his parents until they died, when one of his brothers took responsibility for him and sent him to the Créahm workshops in Liège in 1986. Tassini began working with clay before trying his hand […]
ROSA ZHARKIKH
ROSA ZHARKIKH (1930, RUSSIA) Rosa Zharkikh was born in Moscow in 1930. Her mother was a teacher and her father an engineer, but Zharkikh dropped out of high school and graduated from a vocational school that specialized in training blue-collar workers.For all of her adult life, Rosa has worked in a factory. She spent most […]
ARTHUR BISPO DO ROSÁRIO
ARTHUR BISPO DO ROSÁRIO 1910-1989 | BRASIL During five decades of hospitalization in an asylum of Rio de Janeiro, Arthur Bispo do Rosario has produced over eight hundred tapestries, sculptures and magnificent ceremonial robes for the Last Judgement. Former as a midshipman who lived in Rio doing odd jobs, in 1938, Bispo had a vision: […]
JUDITH SCOTT
JUDITH SCOTT (1943-2005, USA) Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a middle-class family, unlike her twin sister, Judith carried the extra chromosome of Down syndrome. Following an attack of Scarlet Fever in infancy, she also lost her hearing, although this would not be recognized until many years later. Considered “ineducable”, at the age of seven she […]