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Information:
There are conflicting reports about Clyde Angel and his status as an outsider artist. Some accounts believe that Angel has been struggling for many years with mental illness. He is fearful of meeting people, preferring instead for people to see him through his art. It is said that he works alone using a welder’s shop in Iowa, creating beautifully intricate pieces of figurative metal sculptures. His work typically features animal and human forms with certain elements of nature like stars or flowers.
Other sources (including Tom Patterson "Reflections on twenty-five years in the Self-taught/"Outsider" art field" and Jeff Huebner, "Has Anyone Seen Clyde Angel?," Chicago Reader, April 14, 2000, pp. 1, 31-37.) have reported that "no one who has exhibited or purchased work attributed to Angel has ever met him, and his work has only made its way into the self-taught art field due to the efforts of one Vernon Clyde Willits Jr., a sculptor who received an associates arts degree in 1976 from Mount Saint Clare College in Clinton, Iowa, and who has been responsible for introducing and supplying the work to the dealers and curators who have shown it. It's hard to come away from the Reader article unconvinced that both Angel and his work are actually Willits' creation."
A rebuttal from Beverly Farber Kaye, Beverly Kaye Gallery, www.artbrut.com :
After reading the Patterson article, "Dust Storms in the Parallel Art Universe", I was upset by his conclusion about the validity of the artist, Clyde Angel. I referred to the Huebner article that Tom Patterson sited, which he said made it hard to be "unconvinced that both Angel and his work are actually Willits (the agent's) creation."
The author of the original article, Jeff Huebner, did not come to that same conclusion.
The two highly respected dealers mentioned in the article did not come to that conclusion.
Certainly, there are questions, but until they are answered, no one can safely come to that conclusion without severely damaging the reputation and marketability of the artists' work. Now the art has been discredited. It was withdrawn from the Outsider Art Fair. If this is a sham, that would have been the right thing to do. But, nothing has been proven yet to anyone except Tom Patterson and readers who believed his conclusion, without reading the original article for themselves.
Let's look at the facts. There seems to be no public record of a Clyde Angel. The agent's job, however, is to protect a mentally ill artist from an audience he has repeatedly stated he does not want to meet. If Clyde does exist, seems like the agent's doing a good job. The name "Clyde Angel" might be made up, taken from the actual middle name of the agent. Could this have been a ploy to keep at bay seekers of an artist unable to deal with society? We really don't know! Everyone knew that the agent was a retired fireman and sculptor. This was made known as soon as Sherry Pardee saw the sculpture and introduced it to the art world. Is there other information that has swayed the opinion of Mr. Patterson, that has not been mentioned in this article?
I am deeply troubled. I don't know the answer.....only the agent and Clyde Angel....whoever that is, know the answer. I yearn for the truth. I wish I could end with the comment, "The jury is still out", but the jury has already convicted. It makes me shudder. In a court of law the burden of proof would not have been met. But there has been a public execution.
Beverly Farber Kaye
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