The Reverend Howard Finster was twenty feet tall, suspended in darkness. Or so he appeared in the documentary film that introduced a teenaged Greg Bottoms to the renowned outsider artist whose death would help inspire him, fourteen years later, to travel the country. Beginning in Georgia with a trip to Finster's famous "Paradise Gardens", his journey - of which "The Colorful Apocalypse" is a masterly chronicle - provides an unparalleled look into the lives and visionary works of some of Finster's contemporaries: the self ...
Read More
The Reverend Howard Finster was twenty feet tall, suspended in darkness. Or so he appeared in the documentary film that introduced a teenaged Greg Bottoms to the renowned outsider artist whose death would help inspire him, fourteen years later, to travel the country. Beginning in Georgia with a trip to Finster's famous "Paradise Gardens", his journey - of which "The Colorful Apocalypse" is a masterly chronicle - provides an unparalleled look into the lives and visionary works of some of Finster's contemporaries: the self-taught evangelical artists whose beliefs and oeuvres occupy the gray area between madness and Christian ecstasy. With his prodigious gift for conversation and quietly observant storytelling, Bottoms draws us into the worlds of such figures as William Thomas Thompson, a handicapped ex-millionaire who painted a 300-foot version of the book of Revelation; Norbert Kox, an ex-member of the Outlaws biker gang who now lives as a recluse in rural Wisconsin and paints apocalyptic visual parables; and Myrtice West, who began painting to express the revelatory visions she had after her daughter was brutally murdered. These artists' works are as wildly varied as their life stories, but without sensationalizing or patronizing them, Bottoms - one of today's finest young writers - gets at the heart of what they have in common: the struggle to make sense, through art, of their difficult personal histories. In doing so, he weaves a true narrative as powerful as the art of its subjects, a work that is at once an enthralling travelogue, a series of revealing biographical portraits, and a profound meditation on the chaos of despair and the ways in which creativity can help order our lives.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $5.58, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $5.58, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $5.58, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $5.58, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $9.00, very good condition, Sold by Powell's Books Chicago rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $10.00, like new condition, Sold by Book Dispensary rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Niagara Falls, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $12.00, very good condition, Sold by Northshire Bookstore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Manchester Center, VT, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $12.50, like new condition, Sold by Saucony Book Shop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Kutztown, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $26.78, very good condition, Sold by FirstClassBooks rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Little Rock, AR, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.
Add this copy of The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art to cart. $26.78, good condition, Sold by FirstClassBooks rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Little Rock, AR, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by University of Chicago Press.