- James Hampton (artist)
James Hampton (
April 8 ,1909 –November 4 ,1964 ) was anAfrican-American janitor who secretly built a large assemblage of religious art from scavenged materials.James Hampton was born in
Elloree, South Carolina in 1909. His father was agospel singer and a travelingBaptist preacher. In 1928, Hampton left forWashington, D.C. to join his elder brother Lee. They shared an apartment. James Hampton worked as a short-order cook until 1942 when he was drafted intoUnited States Army Air Forces . He served as a carpenter with the noncombatant 385th Aviation Squadron around the Pacific theatre. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and returned to Washington, D.C.In 1946, Hampton became a night janitor with the
General Services Administration . In 1950 he rented a garage in northwest Washington. His brother Lee died in 1948. Hampton died ofstomach cancer onNovember 4 ,1964 at the Veteran's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He never married.A month later Meyer Wertlieb, owner of the garage, came to find out why the rent had not been paid. He knew that Hampton had been building something in the garage. When he opened the door, he found a room filled with many symmetrical, glittering objects surrounding a central throne.
For 14 years, Hampton had been building a throne out of various old materials like aluminum and gold foil, old furniture, various pieces of
cardboard , oldlight bulb s, shards of mirror and olddesk blotter s. He had pinned it together with tacks, glue, pins and tape.It is unknown whether Hampton considered himself an
artist . Hampton's work would be an example of folk ornaïve art — art made by people who are self-taught, who have not studied art techniques, art history, or art theory. [Getlein, Mark. "Gilbert's Living With Art", Sixth Edition, New York, 2002.] The text "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly" was written on the objects in Hampton's handwriting. He had emblazoned the words "Fear Not" above the central throne. The garage contained total of 177 objects. Many of them were inscribed with words out of the biblicalbook of Revelation . The objects on the right side of the central throne seem to refer to theNew Testament and those on the left side to theOld Testament [Stokstad, Marilyn. "Art History", Revised Second Edition, Volume One, Pearson, 2005. ISBN 0-13-145528-1] .Hampton had also kept a 112-page notebook, titled "St James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation", written in his personal code. He referred to himself as St. James and ended each page with the word "Revelation". He had written more text on various pieces of paper and cardboard. Some of them refer to religious visions. Hampton's personal code remains unsolved.
The story became public in the
December 15 ,1964 issue of the "Washington Post ". Hampton had kept his project secret; his relatives first heard about it when his sister came to claim his body.Wertlieb sold the throne to two people who anonymously donated it to the National Museum of American Art of the
Smithsonian Institution (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in 1970.References
* "St. James the Janitor," "
Fortean Times " #150, 2001External links
* [http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=2052 James Hampton biography] - Smithsonian American Art Museum
* [http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/hampton/index.html Dennis Stalling's site about deciphering "Hamptonese"]
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