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| "I am a cold person, a maniac, a grumpy, hostile, rather mean little man, but I try to hide it by being trite. There are times when I would like to disappear in smoke. I would like to be here to hear and see but not to be seen or attract attention - just to slip into myself." (Ted Gordon in an interview with John MacGregor, January 1987, Publications de la Collection de l'Art Brut, fascicule 16, p.37.) | ||
| Ted is abandoned by his mother and raised by his grandparents of Lithuanian descent. His grandmother believes that he is the reincarnation of her brother who was killed during the First World War and smothers Ted with affection. | ||
| Ted is fourteen when his father commits suicide after the family business went bankrupt. He has trouble connecting with people around him and feels excluded and marginal. He is a wanderer, going from one job to another. At the age of twenty-six, he moves to San Francisco, California, where he settles after meeting his future wife. He graduates from San Francisco State University and works for the rest of his life in hospital administration. Since 1986 he and his wife live in a nursing home in Laguna Hills. His art is a response to his desire for attracting attention. Overwhelmed by the childhood traumas, no one ever seemed to care how he felt. That is why he wants to be "seen" for whom he is. Art is for him a way to rebuild and affirm his existence. | ||
| According to John MacGregor, there are two important periods in the work of Ted Gordon. His first drawings, prior to 1967, are mostly caricatures or automatic scribbles on scraps of paper. After that date, Ted gets involved with a therapeutic workshop; this experience seems to have liberated him from suppressed inner forces, allowing him to create larger drawings, often intense and powerful self-portraits. | ||
| SEE ALSO: Publications de la Collection de
l'Art Brut, fascicule 16, Lausanne, 1990. DANCHIN (Laurent), LUSARDY (Martine). Art Outsider et Folk Art, Des Collections de Chicago, Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, 1999. |
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