So, imagine you’re a landlord in 1964 Washington DC. You own an old stable/garage in an alley that you’ve rented to the same guy for 14 years. A nice, quiet black guy. A bit of a loner. He said he needed room to work on something and didn’t have enough space at the boarding house. But he died recently and, because he owed you back rent, whatever is in the garage is yours. You open the door and find this.
It’s a 180-piece, religiously inspired sculpture made out of, essentially, trash. James Hampton, a janitor, constructed it out of bits of old furniture and used every scrap of gold and aluminum foil he could find to gild it. He even paid winos for the foil off of their bottles, according to this essay by Lynda Roscoe Hartigan.
Fortunately, the landlord in question managed to get Hamilton’s sculpture into the right hands. It is now enshrined (so to speak) in the Smithsonian’s Folk Art collection on the bottom floor of the National Portrait Gallery.
And because the work’s title is just too great not to pilfer — I mean, reference — it has been used by a bunch of other artists. The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly — or TTOTTHOTNMGA, as it’s affectionately known for short — is now attached to an orchestral composition, an indie album, and a book of poems by Denis Johnson.
3 Comments
Everybody has a James Hampton somewhere deep inside……….. James Hampton just let his James Hampton out!!
Everybody!
Let your James Hampton OUT!!!
favorited this one, bro
I remember the first time I saw this work of art. I was walking through the first floor of the National Portrait Gallery when I saw something up ahead glittering and glistening like the noon day sun. I was drawn to it and when I stood in front of it, well, its beauty just took my breath away. I could have sat on the bench in front for hours taking in every little detail, fascinated by the love and care it took to create such a work of art. To this day, whenever I travel to D.C., I have to stop by for another look, and I make all my friends and family come look as well. It is truly my favorite work of art.
Post a Comment