Dwight Mackintosh (DMa 110)

DWIGHT MACKINTOSH

Born 1906, Hayward, California; died 1999, California.
Practiced at Creative Growth from 1979 to 1999

Dwight Mackintosh began making artwork late in life, after spending over fifty-five years in institutions (interned at age 16). Upon his release at age 72, Mackintosh came to Creative Growth in Oakland and began a body of work that would make him a giant in the Outsider art world. Rendered in distinctive, kinetic linework, Mackintosh’s subject matter reflects his experiences, through events and objects, during a life of institutionalization. His distinctive looping text is often illegible to the viewer, but is so essential to Mackintosh’s expression that it is sometimes the only visual element on the page. Mackintosh worked in the Creative Growth Studio until his death in 1999. Identified by the well-known art historian John MacGregor as a great American Outsider Artist, Mackintosh's work has been exhibited internationally, including a retrospective exhibition at the Collection d’Art Brut in Lausanne, Fraenkel Gallery, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Rena Bransten Gallery, and the Berkeley Art Museum. He is part of the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Madmusée in Liège, and the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne.

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